Second Chances
by Linnay
Summary: HP/GW Crossover. AU. SLASH. Harry jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?
1. Prologue The Past

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, is all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Unknown. (I'll let you guys vote. See the author's note in the end of this prologue for more details.)

**Warnings: AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and god father are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **I've had this on my mind for a while now and it kept messing up my focus for my other ongoing story (IMMOS).Not to mention some other personal stuff happening recently that has taken my attention away from writing. I'm trying to get back on the horse and start updating again. I'm hesitant about starting a new story with the other still unfinished… but I just couldn't let this go and see what reactions I receive from this idea. Important note though, IMMOS still takes precedence over this new one and I'll prioritize getting the other finished before fully focusing on this.

Oh yeah… and sorry about the High School theme. (I know some of you must be dead tired of this!)XP (And I'm still looking for a beta!)

Second Chances

Prologue

* * *

"What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness."

- Baruch Spinoza

_

* * *

_

_- 12 years earlier.- _

The London traffic was at the moment being redirected from the ever busy and popular tourist spot Piccadilly Circus. The cause of this seemed to be several police cars parked by and outside the small area of the memorial fountain; the statue of Anteros watching everyone's footsteps with an indistinctive eye.

Car horns were honked by impatient drivers who were unaware of the reason behind the great stir. Standing precariously on the roof of a TV station sent car were a young, fancy dressed, woman speaking into a microphone while looking directly into the lens of a video camera held by a rugged looking, middle-aged man. At the end of the countdown made by the man's free hand, she exchanged the bored expression for a practiced one of seriousness.

"This is Jane Winston reporting live from Piccadilly Circus, London central, where the victim of a child kidnapping has finally been retrieved from two whole weeks of captivity. The victim, a child of five years, was found wandering aimlessly about the area before a young couple asked the child the whereabouts of his parents; to which the child immediately began to mumble incomprehensively and cry helplessly. Nothing has yet been said in reference to the child's identity; but it is believed to be, from eyewitness reports, the only son of a young, rich and famous couple, namely the Potters. There is no information about the kidnappers as of yet." She finished in a flourish.

The reporter shoved an errant lock of hair behind her ear as a gust of wind blew by. She almost tripped before recovering her balance again. Standing on the roof of a van in high heels wasn't exactly the brightest thing to do, but she'd rather die than be seen dressed any less immaculate.

She frowned slightly at something the cameraman said.

"What?" She mouthed. Obviously having followed the direction at which the cameraman was pointing, her eyes became more alert and she rushed to speak into the mouthpiece. "We are able to see another car being let through the cut of area."

A black car with dark tinted windows appeared and drove past the police blockade. It stopped beside another police car and a red haired woman stepped out of the car, followed closely by a tall, dark haired male. The woman shouted something hurriedly and frantic, searching the vicinity with her eyes.

Within a second, a small child jumped clumsily out of the opposite police car and ran straight into the woman's arms, who pulled the child securely to her, touching him all over first to see if he was hurt. At ease for now she hugged the boy close to her again. The man enveloped them both and you could hear the child crying and sobbing brokenly against his mother's shoulder.

A police man came up the trio and ushered them back to the car from which the parents had arrived by. The father took the boy in his arms, the mother never letting go of the small hand clasped tightly in hers.

The car drove off again with the whole family having climbed in and was soon out of sight of the camera.

"It has been confirmed. We just saw James and Lily Potter embracing their son, now identified as Harry James Potter, and taking him with them in their car. It seems like a happy ending to a traumatic family experience." The reporter smiled a classical 'all's well' and teeth glistening smile. "Our well wishes go out to the family and their son. Harry. This was Janet Winston, reporting live from central London and now back over to the studio."The reporter finished as the video feed was cut and the picture of Piccadilly Circus faded away.

**AN: **This was just a short flashback really. Just to explain a few things that'll come up in future chapters. I hadn't intended for this to be the first thing in the story, but I somehow liked this start to it the best. :shrugs:

Poll details: You can vote for your favorite couple/s! Okay, so this it what'll you need to do. First, decide which one of the G-boys you want paired with Harry and if Harry should be the dominant/submissive or if it should be an equal relationship. Second (or the optional choices), decide if you want any of the other G-boys paired up with someone and the same goes there (who should be the dominant/submissive or if it should be an equal relationship). Lastly, send your vote to me via PM or through a short review if you don't have an account.

Until next time! /Lin


	2. Chapter One Going To America

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Unknown.

**Warnings: AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and god father are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Extra warning:** I will be using an actual existing school to put Harry in, but since I've never been to the school or been a student there; there is obviously going to be some inaccuracies. I will make most of it up and therefore I apologize in beforehand for future irritation for any possible readers living in the area. I guess you could think of it like an alternate universe?

**Author's note: **I decided to write and post the first chapter of this before doing the next of IMMOS. I'm using some tennis terms in this and will be again in the future. I'm lazy, so I'm asking you to first check it up in an online dictionary, like Wikipedia, before asking me. I'm not a tennis expert and only played it when I was between 11 and 15 years old.

Second Chances

Chapter 1

* * *

"The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it."

Edward W. Howe

* * *

A black haired youth, otherwise known as Harry James Potter or just Harry within family and close friends, chased up to a yellow and white lined ball; which he leveled what they call a slice at. The ball lifted in its course and landed just outside the left singles sideline.

"You need to concentrate more Harry! Think about your footwork! Footwork!" Sirius Black, Harry's god father and tennis coach, yelled at him from the other side of the net.

Sirius Black was a former pro player who had been forced to retire; after having suffered a knee injury from a bad fall during a semifinal in the French Open. The young male, at the time, had been totally devastated by the notice from his doctors and sunken into a slump shortly after. Hadn't it been for his best friend, James Potter who also happens to be his student's father, Sirius might very well have ended up somewhere in the gutters of London; with the way the male was distancing himself from life itself.

A harsh word and long lecture from James forced a brusque awakening onto Sirius that made him realize that fame and glory wasn't everything. What was important was what you decided and made out of life with your own two hands.

An accidental discovery of little Harry using Sirius old racket and actually hitting the ball in the soft spot at the tender age of 6; piqued Sirius interest and he asked permission to train Harry during the boy's spare time. Ever since then Harry had been playing tennis, though his time with the racket was shared with his joy for football (soccer). It wasn't until the boy turned twelve; at which he had started to show real promise at the sport that he began to solely focus on tennis under the devoted and watchful eye of his god father. Sirius might be a tough coach but he was all the same careful and had Harry go to monthly check ups for any possible bone or muscle damage. Harry was still a growing boy after all, so it was important to not put too much stress on the child's body.

The older man sent another ball flying to the opposite and other half of the tennis court; making Harry run for it and he was barely able to return it with a lob. The ball's lack of force made the ball easy enough for the man to give it a resounding forehand; sending it shooting past Harry and hitting the right hand corner on the spot.

"You're supposed to be coaching me, Sirius. Not go for the Grand Slam." Harry lowered his racket with an annoyed glare in his god father's direction.

Said god father sniffed haughtily and pointed his racket at Harry.

"And how are you going to win the Grand Slam with that lousy underspin?" He flung back, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not lousy! You're just a tennis crazed monster!" Harry replied indignantly.

"A monster which you have to beat to even be able to compete at the next US Open! There are lots of more monsters like me out there waiting!"

Before Harry was able to make a scathing retort though; the door to the inside tennis court opened to reveal a middle-aged man wearing the appropriate gear of the family butler. The graying man coughed discreetly behind a gloved hand before addressing the two.

"Young Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, Mr. and Mrs. Potter have requested your presence in his office to discuss a few matters." The butler, a Mr. Bonesworth, informed them.

"Bonesworth! Practice isn't over yet; we have over an hour left!" Sirius complained, or whined if you were to ask his friends.

"It is urgent matters, Mr. Black." Bonesworth pressed on in a definitive voice.

"Fine, fine… Practice's over Harry." Sirius' shoulders slumped in defeat. "We'll just add two extra hours to tomorrow's round then." He added with a devious grin.

"What?" Harry shouted after Sirius who was halfway to the door by now. "Sirius!"

"Daddy's calling Harry. You don't want me telling your mother about what I found under your bed last week now, do you?" Sirius waggled his eyebrows at the youth who attained a nice shade of red.

"You wouldn't!"

"You sure?" The man said in a nonchalant tone.

It took Harry a mere second to rush after the man out the door as Sirius disappeared out of sight.

"Sirius!"

* * *

In the outskirts of London; a Mr. and Mrs. Potter were the owners of a dashing estate of which interior had been completely designed by the wife of the couple. Lily Potter, previously Lily Evans, was a well-known interior designer that has put her touch to many people's homes. James Potter, on the other hand, owned a prestigious law firm that he had founded himself and through his tenacity and sheer ability had managed to turn it into what it was today. A damn good ally in every court proceedings you might find yourself in.

Both could be found talking quietly to each other as their long time friend and son came bursting through the door; still dressed in shorts and t-shirts drenched in sweat. Harry found a grip on Sirius shirt and was about to jump onto the man before noticing his parents' mildly surprised faces.

"Oh…mom…dad…hello there." Harry said sheepishly and reluctantly let go of his god father, narrowing his eyes in a silent threat. The other ignored him though and did a nice bow to the pair instead.

"Ah, my dear James and Lily; how are you on this delightful day?" The pleasant and polite tone coming from the jokester made Harry roll his eyes.

"We're fine Sirius." Lily answered with an amused smile.

"I see you still haven't lost your touch you old dog." James chuckled.

"Old? I'm as young as I'll ever be and it'll be a few more ten years before this whelp here is even going to be close to defeating me." He sounded nothing but smug.

"He's only seventeen." James said. "I don't mean to brag about my own son, but isn't Harry better compared to how you were in that age? I don't remember you getting the chance to compete in the US open until your were at least twenty." James said bemusedly.

"Details." Sirius waved a hand in dismissal. "Though I wouldn't expect any less, I'm the one who trained him after all."

"Don't you think I deserve the credit since it's me whose talent we're talking about here and admit it, you're just the ball boy." Harry crossed his arms and enjoyed watching his god father's face scrunch up in irritation.

"You ungrateful little-!" He began.

"Sirius."

James called everything to a stop. He turned back to his son with a serious face.

"Harry. Something urgent has come up within the firm recently that needs for me and your mother to stay in America for a year starting next month. I know it's rather sudden, but the new client is a high profile business man down there that has requested the law firm's and my services explicitly."

Harry frowned at his parents.

"Wait, are you saying you're leaving me here? Why can't I go with you?"

"We think its best that you stay here in England sweetie. It's for your own good." His mother put in reassuringly.

"I don't understand. What's so wrong with me going to America too?" Harry replied confused. What could be so different from England to America anyway?

"Nothing really." His father reassured him too. "We just think it's safer."

"I can take care of myself." Harry pressed on stubbornly.

"Yes well, it's a bit too late to look for and arrange a tutor for you within this short of time." James said, seemingly looking for reasons to not have Harry come along with them.

"I could go to school there." Harry suggested, becoming a bit eager. "I've never gone to a regular school before and I've always wondered what that would be like. Ms. Cromwell is the most tedious person I've ever met on this earth!"

"Harry, you have to think about your training. This is an important time in your life. How are you to keep up with your practice schedule?" James cut in but Harry smiled.

"Sirius could come with us. Couldn't you Sirius?" The teen turned to say the last part to the man.

James made a strange hand motion behind his son's back but Sirius missed it and smiled largely back at Harry.

"You're aiming for the US Open so why not go a little bit earlier to take in the competition? Yeah, why not." Sirius grinned and winked at James who shook his head.

"I'm not sure." His mother said unsurely, looking from her son to her husband.

"It'll be fine Lily. I'll keep an eye on the little baby." Sirius said and ruffled Harry's already wild hair.

Harry fended off the hand.

"I'm not a baby and I will soon be eighteen!" He grumbled loudly.

"In a year." Sirius laughed. "Like I said; it'll be fine." Sirius said and reached to rub Harry on the head; who pushed the hand away again.

James and Lily eyed them both warily. They had not forgotten about the fact that they had nearly lost their son so many years ago. They had been terrified that it would happen again, so they had arranged for private tutors. As a consequence; little Harry had seldom set foot outside the estate and never alone. He was only allowed to go out if he had Sirius or someone else they trusted accompany him. Rash you might think but mostly any parent would go to any length to protect their children from harm.

However, Harry was seventeen, just a mere year from being a legal adult. Maybe they had been too strict with him and spending some time amongst other children his own age would be good for him? He would have Sirius with him, so they guessed everything would be fine. The man himself could be like a child sometimes but he was capable of being a responsible adult when he needed to be.

"Alright." James said eventually.

Harry made a whooping sound of joy.

"There will be conditions for you to follow." James interrupted the teen's happy dance. "You are to tell Sirius your whereabouts all the time. Don't start slacking on your training schedule and behave like a responsible young man."

"I can do that." Harry said confidently, grinning all the while.

James made an expression that indicated that he wasn't all that confident about that himself like his son was. He sent a look in his best friend's direction and received a nod in return. It basically meant; 'make sure he stays out of trouble' or as Sirius interpreted it as; 'I'll have your ass if anything happens to him'.

"Promise me you'll be careful and not do anything rash honey." Lily ordered her son lightly.

"I promise mom." Harry answered in a bored voice.

"You better young man." James said sternly.

"I know dad." Harry said.

He grinned and went dashing out of the door. He had so much to do!

The next few days found Harry hooked up to his computer and researching various High Schools in California. He had been given the opportunity to choose a school himself. His parents were to live in Los Angeles but he had been told that they didn't want him living in such a large city. Of course Harry had argued against it but his parents won out by playing the 'parents card'. He failed to see any logic in that decision and deemed it abuse of power. He didn't realize they were doing this because, again, that they felt this choice safer.

"Stupid parents" Harry had muttered to himself while he tried to find his way through the various schools' information.

* * *

To be honest, he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to be looking for in a school. He simply lacked that kind of experience(not ever having gone to one) and the schools' proclamations all varied; they had the greatest facilities, all the bright students came from their school, your best chances were with them, and etc. He'd never had to worry about this kind of stuff before, since his parents had always arranged everything for him. He was almost beginning to regret talking his parents into this just because of all this confusing things. Almost that is.

Maybe he should ask for help from them? No, no. He would do it himself if it so took him all night to do it!

Harry's eyes stopped for a second as he scrolled down the page. Looking through the sports section of the school he was currently going through; Harry had noticed two things in particular. The school had a tennis club that was famous throughout the state and had even won the state championship last year. The name of the school was Irvington High School, a public high school that was located in Fremont, California. It had a student population of about 1500. The second thing that had caught his attention was that amongst all the sports clubs he found that they also had a football club, or soccer as the Americans called it over there.

How long have it been since he last played football? Five years now? He couldn't help but to miss the sport somewhat. It had been fun playing with other children even if he never really got to know any of them; since his parents had whisked him away as soon as practice was over and returned to the safety of the house. Only his incessant urging and whining had made his parents agree to him playing in the first place.

'Maybe I would be able to play some again…' He thought fleetingly. That is if Sirius would let him. On the other hand… Sirius didn't have to know, now did he? Harry smiled smugly to himself.

Anyway, making it easier for himself Harry made Irvington his first and only choice; certain that he would be able to convince his parents to let him go there. It filled all the requisites that they had stated so it shouldn't be any problem. Located in a not so big city, it wasn't that far from Los Angeles for his parents to visit him and the school itself was moderately sized.

Harry had been lucky. His reasons for choosing the school despite actually only been based on the tennis club's existence and former success; his parents had agreed with it. His parents though had also looked more into the academic part of it and found it more than satisfactory. Apparently the school was known for its many bright students and excellent courses as well. Harry only hoped the teachers at the school were nothing like Ms. Cromwell… He was immensely pleased (more like deliriously euphoric) with having not to bother with her again.

After that his parents had quickly arranged for a place for him and Sirius to stay. Though how they had managed to find a large enough house equipped with both an indoor and outdoor tennis court was beyond him. Something to do with the previous owner being a tennis fan whose company had gone bankrupt and he had had to sell it they had said. Of course Sirius had been more than overjoyed with their placement and the strange gleam in his eyes had promised lots of hard work and sweat drenching practice hours.

Harry couldn't wait.

Yes, he was being sarcastic. It's Sirius we're talking about here people! The man was the devil incarnated itself when it came to tennis.

Now, what do you need when you're going to high school?

Harry was becoming awfully aware of how little he actually knew about going to a normal school and how to behave in one. He'd also been a bit shocked to hear that the students at Irvington started school 8 in the morning and classes ended at 3 in the afternoon, which was a big difference from his 9 to 2 periods. Ms. Cromwell had said something about the extra time equaled the quantity of the students, he thinks, but it could also have been that Harry's attention span didn't last that long; as that was what she had muttered to herself shortly after first answering his question.

He was supposed to start school at the 24th of August on a Monday and go to the students' reception to fetch his schedule 8 sharp in the morning. First half day of school was spent choosing the different extracurricular activities and elective courses that the students would want to study. The second half would consist of getting to know your homeroom teacher and fellow classmates. Classes would start for real the next day. Or so it all said in the pamphlet the school had sent to Harry's parents after his application had been accepted.

So now he would just have to wait for the date for his scheduled flight to arrive and live through the 'last-week-of-practice-in-England-for-a-year' from hell.

* * *

Harry was jittery and he was slightly shaking from suppressed excitement as he observed the many people walking and rushing past them in the enormous international terminal of the Heathrow airport. With his travel hand bag in one hand and a large suitcase in the other he stood with his god father in line waiting to check in their luggage.

Harry stamped his foot impatiently at a large man that was engaged in an argument with the desk attendant about the excess weight of his luggage. Apparently it was barely overweight but it was enough for the attendant to demand an extra fee for it. The problem was that the man didn't really want to do that; saying that an extra kilogram or so didn't matter that much. The employee disagreed and it was another five minutes until the man grudgingly paid the additional cost for his luggage and left the desk grumbling loudly about incompetent workers.

Adjusting his cap to cover his pale scar on his forehead, like he had been instructed to; Harry stepped up to the counter alongside his god father. It was seldom that he was recognized, however the scar's unusual shape made it an eye catcher. His parents didn't want the tiniest chance of the news of him traveling to the US broadcasted to the public. It was enough that that annoying female reporter (what was her name?) kept insisting on an interview even if it had already been 13 years since his kidnapping. His parents had never allowed any reporters close enough to their son to even get a word out of him except for the day that he had been found.

A sharp edged scar on his forehead was his only remnant from his child kidnapping. Harry himself didn't have any memories of the event and it was all for the best according to his many child physiatrists. However because of that he hadn't been able to help the police identify his kidnapper or kidnappers and they were still on the loose.

Letting Sirius do all the talking; Harry took the time to inspect the flight board hanging above them. Their flight was to leave at one in the morning and arrive at Los Angeles airport eight in the evening. It would be better for him to stay awake for the whole flight and sleep when he got to Los Angeles, but how he were to stay awake for that long a time with only three or so hours of sleep…

'They are all raging mad if they think I'll stay awake for that long…' Harry thought tiredly and tried to repress a yawn that almost threatened to dislocate his jaw.

He dimly noticed Sirius flirting shamelessly with the poor girl attendant who kept blushing and fumbling with their luggage as she attached the identification papers onto the handles. She checked both of their passports; pausing for a few seconds with Harry's but was distracted by a comment about her eyes from Sirius. She smiled shyly and returned them back to him.

Grabbing their hand luggage; Sirius and Harry made their way for the stairs leading to the security check.

"She's staring at me isn't she?" Sirius asked with a smug grin.

Harry cast a short glance back at the check in desk and saw the girl totally ignoring the next waiting traveler while she stared dazedly in their direction.

"How exactly do you do that?" Harry asked after they had gone up the stairs and turned a corner.

"It's all in the genes Harry. I was born with it you see."

"Right…" Harry said halfheartedly.

"What's with the low attitude?" His god father pouted.

"Sirius… It's practically in the middle of the night and I haven't slept for more than 3 hours!"

"Ooh, testy, testy. Just don't fall asleep on me on the plane now. The jetlag will hit you harder if you do."

"I. Know." Harry glared tiredly.

"Okay." Sirius replied lightly.

A minute went past and he began to hum a jolly tune under his breath.

"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" Harry exclaimed in a frustrated voice after a few seconds.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He stopped to say before continuing.

"Never mind!" Harry let out and stalked ahead of Sirius.

"Aw, don't be like that Harry. You know I love you with all my heart!" Sirius shouted after him and earned him quite a few strange looks from onlookers.

Harry made a strange moaning and growling sound.

"You do too? That makes me so happy!" Sirius clutched at his heart and chased after Harry who instantly hurried on his steps.

"Stay away from me you idiot!"

"Harry!"

Tired travelers and bystanders became the surprised audience to a strange scene of a teenager stalking past them hastily, with a man close on his heels sprouting nonsense and stupid gibberish about his undying love for the apparent youth.

* * *

Going through security had gone fine. Waiting for the boarding to start had been alright. Sitting through his first lift off with his hands clutched tightly to the armrests of his seat; had not been pleasant. The sudden shift in altitude had made his ears ring painfully and he was grateful when they had finally reached the appropriate height that the ringing also had stopped. After that the flight was pretty much okay.

He spent the eleven hours it would take to LA on the plane, switching between listening to music, to reading a novel he'd brought with him, gazing at the clouds beneath them through the window and inspecting the food they got on the plane. Let's just say that he was not impressed with it and he was not a picky eater either. Not all, he quite enjoyed various different foods and had even learned to cook some dishes with the help of the house chef. Not having any real friends Harry had befriended some of the general staff on the estate and on that way learned some things besides simply calling for a servant to get the job done for him.

At one point in time Harry noticed that old man again squabbling with one of the stewardesses about something and he glumly realized that he would have to spend nearly half a day with that man. Oh joy. He already had his hands full with handling Sirius and he really didn't need another headache to worry about.

Harry dubiously eyed the man sitting in the seat next to him.

He was going to be living with the man alone. His parents had downsized his living arrangements as much as they could without causing discomfort. As such they wouldn't have any help with any regular house chores and with the looks of it… It looked like Harry was going to be the one to do most of it. He could still remember the time when Sirius had tried to use the washing machine and it had ended up in little pieces. He was banned from ever touching any machinery that wasn't a car or a motorcycle ever since. Not that the man complained; he could laze about as much as he wished now because of that.

"You worried?"

Sirius voice brought his eyes back to the male from watching the night sky outside.

"Sort of…?" He answered uncertainly, not quite sure. "I just realized that all this is so new to me. You went to a regular school right Sirius? How was it?"

The man looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Well, your father and I, alongside your mother, went to the same boarding school in Scotland and it was alright I suppose. Teachers were alright and classes were alright, with some exceptions. Nothing bad or good to say about it really, well, running wild in the hallways were always fun with your father." He grinned in remembrance. "Oh, and the girls too were fun." He added and Harry had to roll his eyes at that.

Of course, couldn't forget about the girls now could he?

"How come you're not married like dad then?" Harry asked innocently.

"Ah, well, that is… just never got the chance, you know what I mean…" Sirius hurried to say.

"I know what you mean. You're saying that they all realized what a prick you were and then went off to marry guys like my dad." Harry smiled sweetly.

The male's eyes narrowed and he leaned toward the teen with an evil glint in his dark eyes.

"Just you wait you little whelp when we get to Fremont and I have you all by myself. Then we'll see who's smiling."

Harry tried to laugh in response but it came out more like a nervous chuckle.

"I'm sure there's a girl somewhere out there that's willing to marry someone like you." He all too late realized that his wording hadn't exactly been the best and the strengthened gleam in the other's eyes promised definite payback later on.

Harry paled.

"Sirius… No, I-I mean…"

"Twenty laps around the court as soon as we get to the house." Sirius said evilly.

Harry groaned pitifully and burrowed his nose in his novel; dreading their arrival at their new resident and what his god father could possibly have planned for him.

Harry's armrests suffered through further abuse as the plane got ready to land. He ignored Sirius cheeky comments as they got out their hand luggage. In the mood he was not and all he could think about was to get into a soft bed and get some well deserved sleep.

He was a bit unnerved by a pair of large security guards that kept spanning their eyes across the many people who had arrived with the plane from London. He made sure to stay as inconspicuous as he could. They retrieved their suitcases and went outside where Sirius hailed a taxi for them.

They arrived at the hotel they were staying for the night at. As soon as Harry got himself over the threshold of their room, he went straight for one of the beds and threw himself down onto it with a relived weak shout.

"Finally!"

"Don't forget to brush your teeth." Sirius said from his sitting position on the other bed.

"…'m not a child…" Harry mumbled into the pillow but he nevertheless rose tiredly, roving through his suitcase before stumbling to the bathroom.

The door swung close and the sound of running water came next. A few minutes later a muffled curse was heard. Harry came back into room looking very tired and annoyed. He had a large stain of water on his t-shirt who seemed to be the cause of the earlier abuse of the English language.

Throwing the shirt at the floor he undressed down to his boxers and crawled into bed; digging himself down beneath the layers of sheets.

He never noticed Sirius rising to his feet and tucking him in properly as he almost instantly made for the land of dreams.

* * *

Several knocks on the door had Harry rising himself up into a sitting position on the bed. He watched through bleary eyed eyes how his god father opened it to accept the small cart filled with various breakfast foods from the male employee.

"Wha?" He yawned and stretched his arms above his head.

"Room service." Sirius replied, rubbing his hands together. "You hungry?"

A loud growl from Harry's abdomen answered him.

"I'll take that as a yes." He winked.

"What do they have?" Harry said with more clarity as he became more alert.

He swung his legs to the side and did some more stretching.

"Oh, bagels, fruits, egg & bacon, different juices…" He continued list a few more.

"Did you order the whole kitchen or what?" Harry said amusedly.

"Something like that." Sirius laughed. "I didn't know what you would like, so I figured why not."

Meanwhile Harry had trudged across the floor to inspect the cart and its contents.

"You are aware that I'm not a picky eater right, Sirius." Harry said and popped a grape into his mouth.

"I didn't know how you would react to American cuisine, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to have some variety to choose from." He shrugged and picked up a plate of bacon.

The man took a seat at the round table by the panorama window. Harry came over with his own fruit filled plate and a glass of orange juice. The city skyline welcomed his morning tired eyes and he reveled at the difference in scenery from what he was so used to. In the distance he could barely make out the Hollywood sign. It was smaller than what he had imagined it to be.

"Are we traveling to Fremont today or tomorrow?" Harry asked absentmindedly, chewing on a bagel.

"We're taking another flight later today from LA to San Francisco. Then we're renting a car to Fremont." Sirius answered him.

Harry frowned slightly.

"Why couldn't we have gone directly to San Francisco?" He wondered.

"I really wanted to see the Hollywood sign." Sirius said while grinning from ear to ear.

"You're joking right?" Harry said disbelievingly and coughed on the fruit piece that almost got stuck in his throat.

"Of course!" Sirius chuckled. "No, your parents wanted to stop by once before you leave for school since they don't know when they'll get the time to next time."

Harry's parents had gone ahead of them to get settled in while Harry's dad met his new client and discussed the case, hence why Harry had been traveling alone with only Sirius.

There was another knock on the door and Sirius agilely rose to his feet.

"Must be them!" He exclaimed.

Having opened the door Harry had a second to acknowledge both his parents before he was enveloped in a tight embrace by his mother, who had nearly flung herself across the room to reach him.

"Harry! Are you alright? Did the flight go fine? You didn't get airsick or anything did you?" She rambled on and Harry only shook his head to all of her questions.

"I'm alright mom." He said and tried to gently push her away when he saw Sirius making pouting faces at him above her shoulder.

"Well, you do seem alright to me." She said and held his cheek with her hand. She turned his face from side to side and inspected his features closely.

"The boy is fine Lily." James said from his position beside his best friend.

She let go of her son, albeit a bit reluctantly, and adjusted her clothes.

"Makes sure to keep me updated Sirius. If anything at all happens to him I want to know about it, you hear?" She ordered him.

"You can trust me Lily dear."

"Like when the time you said Mr. Wilson's class was cancelled?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wasn't it cancelled?" Sirius frowned, trying to remember the event in question.

"It was, after you had sent him on a wild goose hunt for students smoking in the woods behind the school, that is." She reminded him.

"How could I have known that he would get himself lost in the process?" Sirius said innocently.

"Maybe because you knew the poor man had only been a teacher there for a month and that it were no students in the woods to begin with?" She asked knowingly.

"So I made a mistake." He said and didn't sound sorry at all.

She made a humming noise while she searched her purse. She pulled a slip of paper and pressed it into Harry's hand.

"If you ever need us sweetie, me and daddy are just a phone call away. Don't feel afraid to tell us that you want to go home at anytime."

"Thanks mom." Harry said, going along with his mother.

"Good. Now then." She turned back around to her husband who had stood mostly silent until now. "James and I will be going now and make sure you do not miss the flight Sirius."

"Like your mother said Harry. Phone us anytime you want and we'll work it out." James said before ushering his wife back out of the door. Probably before she could remember anything else she wanted to say and they'd run the risk of being there all day.

Lily waved a good bye to her son before James closed the door behind them.

Harry sagged back into his seat with a sigh. He rubbed his forehead tiredly and shielded his eyes from the early morning sun.

"I wish she could just lay of a little bit. How old does she think I am?"

"A mother's privilege Harry. Live with it." Sirius sat down with Harry again. He picked up a piece of bacon and gobbled it up.

"Don't forget your meat." He said in-between mouthfuls. "I think I saw some slices of ham there somewhere." He waved in the direction of the room service cart.

"I'll take some later." Harry said.

"Good. Don't want you ending up without the necessary nutrients just because you're in a new country."

He paused before continuing.

"Want to watch some TV after breakfast? I think I saw a notice in the newspaper of a friendly game between one of the Williams sisters and Davenport scheduled for this morning."

"And it's not because you have the hots for any good-looking, female players?" Harry asked suspiciously.

His god father looked rightly offended at the insinuation.

"Of course not! I only admire their skills as the great tennis players they truly are." Sirius said with a faked serious tone while reaching for the TV remote.

Harry made a good impression of his mother when he hummed at the older man and popped another grape into his mouth with an exasperated sigh.

He rolled his eyes yet again at the male and tried to ignore the man while focusing on the various shots the players did on the screen.

'One would think he's the teenager and not me.' He thought and watched the game.

Eventually his mind slowly strayed away from the game and he was soon thinking about what sort of people he would meet on his first day of school. He tried to imagine what they would be like, but Harry had no idea that they would exceed his expectations and then some.

**AN:** There ya go folks. The first chapter is out! I hope you liked it. I've made a poll with the three most voted main pairings. You can find it on my profile page, so please go there to leave a final vote! I'll announce the result in the next chapter. Until next time! /Lin


	3. Chapter Two First Day In School

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and god father are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Extra warning:** I'm going to just choose a street in Fremont to put Harry's and Sirius' house in. I've never been to Fremont so the only thing I have to go by is the simple map I can get from google. How the area looks like is all up to my imagination and the pictures I can find (which isn't much..). Oh yeah, my description of the general weather and nature might be off but I'll try my best.

**Author's note: **Hello everyone! I suppose if you read my profile and above you already know who won the final poll. I'm quite ecstatic actually that I'll be getting to write Heero/Harry, there are some major sweet/awkward/funny/innocent scenes I could play out on those two. :grins wickedly: Hope you like this new installment of SC!

Second Chances

Chapter 2

* * *

"I can bring you to the door, but you have to walk through."

Jean-Paul Vadnais

* * *

The flight from Los Angeles was definitively shorter in comparison to Harry's first travel. It took them only a little over an hour to reach the other city and another fifty minutes or so to reach their new house in Fremont by the rental car.

Harry was really beginning to second thoughts of his choice of having only Sirius with him on this trip. Someone had forgotten to mention to the man that you drove on the right side on the road in the US as opposed to driving on the left in Britain. For a second there Harry had thought that his first trip abroad was going to end horrifically before it had barely started. They were lucky that the police officer who later pulled them over only decided to give Sirius a warning when the officer learned of their nationality and first time driving in the US.

They drove through Oakland and Hayward before arriving at their final destination around noon that Saturday. Their new house was located on Hampshire Way by the Blacow Park and pulling up on the driveway; Harry had to admire the outer façade of the house with its creamy white color and grand entrance. It felt a bit like home with its brick walls, the large parlor windows and a small tower even.

It had two but large floors and a basement with a separate building for the indoors court and the outdoors court just beside it. They spent a considerable amount of time checking both out because Sirius wanted to make sure the quality of them was up to standards. There was also a pool house with a pool inside it that was connected to the main house through a simple roofed walkway and the pool house itself could be considered like a small house, all aspects included.

Going back to the main house they decided on a room for themselves; Harry chose a room that had a view of the back garden and the park as he liked how the nature gave him a peace of mind. Sirius, obviously, chose the room that happened to be equipped with a large TV and an even bigger bed, a king-sized one. Harry neglected to tell his god father that his was queen-sized; the man might change his mind about the rooms or even move the TV to that room just for the sake of the larger bed. Harry wouldn't put it past him to do that actually.

There were two guestrooms with two beds each, normal sized, and they were situated in between the other two rooms; leaving Harry's in the western part of the hallway and Sirius' in the eastern part. That might be a good thing though; it gave Harry some privacy and the other wouldn't keep him awake with making a lot of noise.

Unpacking his suitcase; Harry could hear from down the hall the faint sound of the TV blaring and he shook his head; going over to close the door and effectively shutting it out. Figures his god father would favor the TV before doing anything else. In the corner stood a tall closet and a smaller drawer to the side of it where he put all his clothes; his other belongings like books and other knick-knacks would arrive later after the first week of school. For the time being he would have to do with his laptop, the couple of books he'd brought on the flight and playing tennis.

He had three rackets with him and you might ask why he had more than one. Well, you see, during a match it might happen that one of his rackets got damaged or he thought the strings had gotten too lose on one. Having one or two spare rackets was common sense when playing tennis on high level.

He took out his favorite racket; a black and emerald colored Prince racket that suited his play style to the point of near perfection, if he could say so himself, and made a few swings with it. This simple practice always helped to calm his nerves and it helped him greatly now that he was so nervous about all the changes to his life recently. Don't get him wrong though; he was thrilled about them too, he had been the one pushing for it after all, and he couldn't wait for Monday to show up.

He replaced the racket in its bag; putting it and the others carefully away in the closet before slumping down on the bed. The bed felt soft to his travel tired back and body and he closed his eyes for a short rest.

I'm finally here, he thought and couldn't help but to give a goofy smile. This was great! Brilliant! He would be able to go to a regular school with regular teenagers and experience regular life. Regular rocked! There were lots of things to try. He just had to find out what all those were first. Maybe he'd ask around in school, or maybe not; he didn't want them thinking he was some ignorant rich brat, well he was rich but he was certainly not a brat or ignorant, he told himself.

Finished unpacking; Harry went on to explore the rest of the house and deemed it more than livable and comfortable. The kitchen was fairly modern and spacey, which he liked, with lots of storage and already equipped with all the necessary utensils and more. There was even an ice-cream machine that Harry had his suspicions on it being a demand from a certain sweet loving god father. The kitchen was fully stocked and he spent some time inspecting the differences between the foods of America to that of England.

He continued on to the living room and tested the furniture there; grading them slouching approved. The soft cotton of the couch was marvelous and he had just enough time to sit down before a loud voice bellowed from the second floor.

"Time for the first practice on American soil Harry! Get dressed and meet me at the court!"

Apparently Sirius had lost his interest in whatever was on the TV and decided it was time for some physical training.

"Alright I'm coming." He called back and heaved himself up from the couch.

It was going to be a long practice no doubt considering the excitement laced voice of his god father.

* * *

The first things that struck Harry on his second day in Fremont was that it could get very dry and hot even in late August in comparison to damp and cloudy London. He tried airing himself by tugging at his t-shirt; he wasn't exactly accustomed to temperatures up in the seventies and eighties and 81F° (27C°) was a little bit on the hot side for him. According to the weather forecast it would get cooler in the late afternoon and evening so he would just have to pull through the day until then.

He took a generous sip of his lemon ice-tea and adjusted the sunglasses that kept slipping on his nose because of the sweat. The glass doors to the pool house had been pulled open and Sirius was in the middle of taking a relaxing swim. Sitting on the cobbled ground outside the small house was Harry in the shadow offered from the roof tilting a bit outwards.

He wafted himself offhandedly with a pale hand and inwardly hoped that the weather wouldn't be quite as hot tomorrow at first day of school. It would take some time before h got used to a lot of things and thinking about tomorrow made his stomach twist with excitement and nervousness.

Harry had convinced Sirius to let him go to school alone on his new bike instead of being driven there with the car. Taking the bike to school would allow him to take in more of his surroundings and he'd rather not have Sirius go rampaging around the school and ruin his chances of getting any friends on the first day.

Harry sipped on his drink as Sirius heaved himself up on the edge of the pool and sat down in the opposite chair; dripping water everywhere and leaving wet imprints in his path. The man poured himself a glass of his own and swallowed the whole drink in one go before refilling it and reclining back in the chair.

"Wonderful day isn't it?" The dark haired male let out with smile.

"Hot." Harry managed to get out in a tired voice.

Sirius chuckled.

"I forget you haven't been outside of chilly Britain before. Better get used to it though; we're going to be here for a year."

"Is it going to be this, hot, every day?" Harry asked exasperated.

"No, I think it's just a little warmer than the average today. It'll probably be cooler tomorrow."

"Thank god."

"What? Little Harry is too hot for comfort?" Sirius grinned at the raven haired teenager.

"Oh, shut it!" Harry glared at the male who only smiled sweetly in return.

"But you're nervous, aren't you?" Sirius asked knowingly and Harry glanced back at him with a small measure of surprise.

"How'd you…?"

"I've known you since you were just a little whelp Harry. Of course I know when you're nervous or not, and there's nothing to be nervous about." He assured him.

"You sure?" Harry asked doubtfully. He had thought about a whole bunch of worst case scenarios; the other more worse than the other. New places and a large imagination would do that to you.

"I'm sure! Well, better watch out for 'first day ceremonies' though, but I don't think you're in any danger of that since you're entering as a senior. They'll probably only go after the firsties, unless they mistake you for one you're safe." Sirius grinned again; reaching over to place his hand on Harry's shoulder comfortingly and giving it a light shake.

Harry smiled uncertainly.

He suddenly felt very unsure about the next day and he was almost on the verge of asking Sirius to accompany him tomorrow, but he clamped down on his tongue before he could do that. He'd never live down the embarrassment and he wasn't a baby anymore. Other teenagers did this almost every day; went to school and interacted with each other, so why couldn't he do the same right? He had to prove it to his parents that he was fully capable of taking care of himself without them around every time.

"What do you say about a one set match to soften up the muscles before practice?" Sirius asked; the challenge glistening in his eyes as he stood up.

"Indoors court?"

If they used that court Harry could at least enjoy the game more since it was air conditioned.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at that.

"In this fine weather? Why waste it being indoors, I say outdoors court."

"What?" Harry half whined. "You're joking right? In this heat? Are you mad?"

"Harry, it's not that high of an impossibility that you'll be playing in temperatures like these during the US Open next year." Sirius said matter-of-factly and with a minor stern look at his young protégé.

"I understand." Harry muttered sullenly.

"That's it lad! Now go change."

Harry made a last longing look to the haven of coolness and shadows before entering the main house to get changed into his practice clothes. Maybe a bit of practice, despite the heat, would be good to settle his racing nerves.

* * *

The next morning found Harry waking up from a long night of restlessness and preschool nerves going haywire when he realized that this was the day. This was the first day of school. He had had barely six hours of sleep and it could be blamed both on his nerves and the still lingering jetlag messing up his usual rhythm.

A quick shower and getting dressed in a pair of dark green cargo shorts and white t-shirt; he entered the kitchen. He pulled out a few ingredients form the fridge, a pan from the compartment below the stove and began making breakfast that consisted of fried sausages, eggs and vegetables. He was just in the process of depositing it all on two separate plates when a drowsy Sirius staggered through the opening and sat down by the table. Harry fetched a cup which he filled with black coffee and wordlessly placed it in front of the male. He couldn't help smiling at the hand groping on the table's surface before it made contact and raised the cup.

Sirius cursed when the liquid scolded his tongue and he immediately became much more alert; all in time to acknowledge the plate Harry put down in front of him this time. He dug into the food as soon as he got the fork and knife in his hands.

Harry shook his head and sat down by the table with his own plate and a cup of tea for beverage. They ate their food in companionable silence; the scraping of utensils and soft breathing accompanying them.

Harry rinsed the plate when they were finished and Sirius sipped on his second cup of coffee.

"This is the day, huh?" He asked after a while. "You got everything you need?"

On a kitchen chair lay a newly bought shoulder bag that Harry picked up and roved through it; checking with the help of his god father that he had every item that he needed. A case with pencils and such, a college block, a calendar so he could keep track of homework and special dates, his cell phone and finally his wallet with lunch money and a little extra just in case. That was another novelty that he was going to experience; eating lunch in a cafeteria and not in the family's dining room when he needed to eat during his lessons.

Sirius walked over to the door to pick up the newspaper that had just fallen through the mail box on the door.

"I think so." Harry said, closing the clasp on the bag and making sure once that it was securely closed.

"Well, then. What are you waiting for? It's nearly seven thirty already." Sirius said offhandedly and scratched his unshaven cheek while he inspected the headline news.

"What?" Harry gasped out and sprung out of his chair like it was on fire. "Sirius! Tell me sooner next time!"

The teenager grabbed the bag and slung it on his shoulder, hurriedly drinking up the last of his tea and rushing past Sirius. He fumbled with the laces of his converse; cursing once or twice before he got both of them on.

"I figure it's your own fault for not checking the clock." Sirius said as he opened up the newspaper to the entertainment section. "Imagine what all the celebrities here get up to…" He said humouredly. "Dogs that are almost too small to be called dogs dressed in clothes and pink at that too!" He snickered.

"What do I care about that?" Harry replied incredulous, stopping in his actions momentarily. "Let them do whatever they want." He said uncaringly.

Sirius nodded with an agreeing look.

"School?" He asked again with a raised eyebrow.

The older male smiled heartedly when the teenager gave a 'meep' and shot out of the door; just barely managing to grab his keys from the bowl on a small table by the door and nearly tripping on the threshold in his haste.

"Bloody hell!" He cursed loudly but nevertheless didn't stop and took the stairs two at a time.

"Language!" Sirius called after him before he closed the door with a last look at his god son. "Good luck Harry."

* * *

It had taken Harry a total of five whole minutes before he remembered to slow down so he would actually be able to orient himself and choose the right way to the school. Lucky for him their house wasn't that far from the school and finding his way there ended up not being that hard despite his lack of venturing out alone. He still breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted the big stone boulder announcing the name of the school, as he veered his bike from the sidewalk and up the school's driveway.

Parking and locking his bike; Harry turned around to take his first good look at the school and was stunned at the spot. So this was a regular school. He wondered how this building was so different from all the others and how it would look inside. He grabbed the rim of his bag with both hands and bravely began stalking catiously up the rest of the paved road.

A booth with a banderol hung up behind it drew his attention. The words on it read out the information for new and old students to sign up there before moving to the next booth where they would be choosing their elective courses and extracurricular activities.

Nervousness taking a hold of him again; Harry steered his steps to the first booth where young honey blonde colored woman sat with a wide smile on her lips. There weren't any other students by this booth at the moment, the majority were standing by the other looking through a catalogue, so the woman noticed him almost right away.

Her eyes caught his and he couldn't help but to tighten his hold on his bag when he took the last steps up to her. She smiled even wider than before if it was possible and grabbed a pen before addressing him.

"Freshman?" She asked in a soft but strong voice; pen at the ready.

"Uh, no, senior." He said when he managed to unlock his tongue from the roof of his mouth.

She frowned gently at him; taking a closer look at him.

"I haven't seen you before." She stated finally.

"Uh…" Harry stumbled over the words. "I just moved here… and…" He trailed off.

The woman smiled again.

"Ah, I see. You're a transfer student, your name please?"

"Harry Potter."

She flipped a few pages, drawing her pen along the many names before she made a small noise and checked his name off the list. She handed him a piece of paper that he took gingerly.

"This tells you when and where you're going to meet up with your new class and homeroom teacher. You can sign up for extracurricular activities and such there." She waved at the other booth. "We hope you'll enjoy your stay here at Irvington High School Mr. Potter. It's a nice accent you got there. Have a nice day!" She said and turned to another student that had come up behind Harry.

"Thanks." Harry said, reddening slightly at the comment, and stepped aside.

"Have you missed me as much as I missed you this whole summer Miss Cunningham?" A teasing voice said.

"Mr. Maxwell!" The woman burst out in a mix between humor and scolding.

Harry looked back to see another teenager leaning on the table with one arm; a cheeky grin fixed into his merry features. First impression told Harry that it was a female, because of the long chestnut hair that was put up in a braid, but taking a second look and judging from the depth of the voice told him otherwise. He stared at the boy like it was the first time he had seen another male with so long hair; which it was. He had thought only girls wore their hair that long but he guessed he had been wrong about that.

The teen wore a worn backpack over a black tank top, beige colored shorts and white old sneakers that had been dirtied so much they were gray. The whole frame of the youth spoke of unbridled confidence and the jokester personality was literally written all over him as he continued to flirt shamelessly, though not being completely blatant about it, with the woman.

She seemed used to it though so it must not have been a novelty that the teenager behaved like this.

"Charming as always I see." She noted and checked the boy's name of the list while handing him a paper too.

"I do what I can for the ladies." He replied and winked at her.

"It appears so." She said and hid a smile. "Now off with you. Shoo!"

The teenager laughed and waltzed off to the second booth. Harry caught his eyes fleetingly but the youth seemed to pay him no mind and Harry only had the time to acknowledge his eye color, deep violet if that was even possible, before the boy had passed him.

The other booth was already overcrowded and it looked hard getting to the front. The teenager from before sighed loudly at this and began pushing and elbowing his way through; Harry decided to follow in his footsteps and they soon found themselves in front of an older man that looked haggard and tired as he eyed them both. It was clear the man wished he was somewhere else entirely and he continued to wipe off sweat that beaded around his temples and his beginning baldness.

"I suppose you two want a catalogue and an application sheet too?" He huffed and handed them over to the two without waiting for an answer. The man went back to eyeing the copious amount of students tiredly.

The chestnut haired boy just shrugged his shoulders in response to that and fought his way out again; earning him and Harry annoyed looks from the other students for their second time making their way through. Harry tried to smile apologetically while not stepping on anyone's feet or bumping into someone; something the other teenager didn't seem to care about at all as he only grinned at them gave a small salute.

"Excuse me, coming through, thank you, and thank you." He called cheerily.

Getting out of the throng the boy quickly disappeared behind a corner and left Harry standing alone.

Harry wandered a bit off from the other students and found him a place under a tree that offered him a cool shade and away from all the bustling. He plumped down Indian style and opened up the catalogue, amazed at all the different courses you could choose from outside of the usual curriculum and some he even wondered what they actually were about.

It had been decided between him and his parents that he would take all the standard courses, eventually advancing when he got settled in with all the changes, and any other courses he felt interested in.

The amount of courses wasn't overwhelming but there were still a large number of them and they all made Harry somewhat confused. In the end he opted for choosing a foreign language; thinking it could be fun learning another language besides his native tongue and then he came upon another problem which was which language he was going to pick.

His mother would have reprimanded him if she saw him now and how he chose; by closing his eyes and pointing at random. He opened his eyes and saw that he had picked German. He stared at the post for a second before shrugging and writing it down on his application sheet. For extracurricular activities he would select tennis of course, a no brainer that one, but he needed to hand in his paperwork before he could try out.

The man looked as tired as before when he accepted Harry's application sheet and the returned catalogue. Harry hedged before asking the man where he could turn in his paperwork for try outs and the man gave him a strange look. To the responsible coach of course the man had told him and been a bit embarrassed at that. That made sense, he thought.

Checking his watch; Harry saw that it was over three hours until lunch and the time set up for meeting his class in return wasn't until after lunch at one. He thought he could spend that time checking out the school; in the mean time getting a feel of the place since he was going to be there for a whole year. Finding out where the tennis club where would be a good idea too.

The school area consisted of the main building; where the principal's office lay next to the teachers' lounge and students' cafeteria along with the school library and two computer rooms. The nurse's office was situated there too; amongst a couple of classrooms designated for social studies oriented courses on the second floor of the building.

There was an additional building for the science and arts courses not far from the main building. Further away Harry deduced that all the athletic facilities had to be; football and soccer, baseball and softball fields and the tennis courts. He'd learned from the school's website that it offered a range of sports for athletic inclined and interested students.

It was a bit of a walk but he eventually arrived at the beginning of the athletic facilities. He spotted the tennis courts just ahead of the soccer fields and gave an appreciative glance on the way of the various fields. It all looked almost new and fresh; he really began to liking this school and he hadn't even met his class or his teachers yet.

He arrived at the tennis courts and didn't spot a single soul roaming around. He frowned to himself but didn't give up that easily; searching the area until he found what must have been the changing rooms the coach's office.

The door was open and he hesitated for a bare second before sticking his head in; looking around.

"Hello?" He called out and waited.

No answer.

Harry grew uncertain and was about to turn back when a deep voice yelled from a room within.

"Yes? Just a moment!"

The voice yelped and something crashed into the floor; driving up some dust that floated out of the door before a man stepped out coughing hoarsely.

Harry thought his eyes was going to pop out when he spotted the length of blonde hair pulled into a loose ponytail at the neck. He wondered offhandedly if the American men had a strange inclination towards very long hair or something similar, as this was the second male within short time span he saw sported this length; though the teen seemed to beat the man with an inch or two.

Icy blue eyes blinked a few times to get the dust out of them before settling on the raven haired teen.

"Ah, yes?" The man, who couldn't be older than in his mid-twenties, queried.

"Oh, I wanted to turn in my papers for the try out, sir." Harry replied and unknowingly addressed the man formally while he reached into his bag for said papers.

The man's presence just seemed to demand respect.

"Oh, really?" He said, his eyes lighting up with interest. "Your name?"

"Harry Potter." He said as he handed over the papers to the man.

The older male's orbs widened slightly and he skimmed Harry's papers with a curious eye.

"Harry James Potter?" He questioned and raised his head. "The teenager from England that's entering the US Open next year?"

"Uh, yes." The teen replied a bit stunned that the man seemed to know his name.

"Interesting. Very interesting." The man said, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Welcome to Irvington Mr. Potter. I believe the tennis club very soon will receive a considerably talented addition. I don't think the try out will be of any obstacle for you, a mere custom. I'm Milliardo Peacecraft, but everyone calls me Zechs, so no need for formalities Harry." He added with a smile.

"Thanks." Harry said, unused to receiving praise from anyone except his own family.

"Everything seems to be in order." Zechs said as he perused the papers again; flipping through them one at a time. "I suggest you get back to the main grounds so you'll have time to grab something to eat before the one o'clock meetings. Off you go." Zechs made a dismissing motion.

Harry cast a glance at his watch and was surprised to see that it was nearly twelve already. Talk about time flying away when you were busy doing something.

He left the coach and made his way back; noticing the large amount of students that seemed to flow in and out of the cafeteria. Harry had to brace himself before venturing inside and he was met with a flurry of faces and chattering clouding the air around him.

Feeling really out of place with so many people around him; Harry stood nearly stock-still as he observed various teenagers talking to and moving around each other. He tried walking by the walls rather than walking straight through to get to the other side where the food disk lay. He was slightly relieved to see that no one noticed him or cast a second glance at him; for he didn't feel quite ready yet to engage in conversations with these people. First of all; he had no idea what he was supposed to talk about and he didn't want to make a fool out of himself on his first day. He had enough trouble trying to take everything in and adapting to it before actually throwing himself into it all.

It was at times like these that he wished that he had friends in his own age and not only the maids and servants at his home in England who were all thirty or above. Talking to them hadn't prepared him at all for American teenagers talking about friends, entertainment and sports to mention a few things.

So into his thoughts was he that he accidently stepped into the last person standing in the cafeteria line. He flinched backwards immediately and addressed the other to apologize.

"Oh! Sorry." Harry said awkwardly and took in the teenager standing in front of him.

He had to blink a few times when the boy standing in front of him had to be of Asian descent but all the same he had the eyes of clearest cobalt blue that went against Harry's previous assumption together with his chocolate brown hair. It seemed to be as messy and wild as Harry's own; if not more untamed and gravity defying.

The boy wore a green tank top that let everyone see the slight muscles underneath his slim body, a pair of worn jeans and grey shoes added to his wild image and Harry caught himself staring when the teen spoke to him.

"Be careful next time." He said in a lilting tone that had the slightest tint of an accent underneath his speech. Harry found he liked it and at ease that he wasn't the only with an accent of some sorts.

"Sure." He replied and the teen turned his back to him again.

The line moved slowly and he threw thoughtful glances every once in a while in the cobalt eyed teen's direction. He couldn't explain it as anything but pure curiousness about the other; the slightly taller boy seemed to give off this mysterious aura that drew Harry in. It was weird; to say the least and that's what baffled Harry as to why he kept stealing glances off the other teenager.

Harry mimicked the boy when he picked up a tray; not having bought food in a cafeteria before mind you and searched the racks absentmindedly for anything that looked edible. He wasn't too sure about the sandwiches or hamburgers that was being offered, some things he didn't even know what it was or contained so he opted for the safe choice instead; figuring he could just get a proper meal when he got back home.

He reached over to grab a banana and an apple from a basket; drawing the attention of the teen in front of him as he brushed slightly against the messy haired boy's arm. Harry tried ignoring looking into the eyes that he felt on him and he saw the other take in his tray before focusing his eyes to the front again.

He seemed to be going for the same vegetarian option like Harry, he noticed, before he handed over a bill to pay for his food when they arrived at the register.

Harry pulled out his own wallet from his pocket and paid the lunch lady what she wanted for his. Tray in hand Harry turned around and saw the cobalt eyed teen make his way to a table in the far corner; occupied by another Asian boy and the same teen from this morning that was merrily waving the other the teen over to them.

Scanning his eyes along the hall; he found an empty table in the same end as the other three teens but near the opposite wall. His plastic tray clattered when he put it down on the table and he sat down; removing his shoulder bag in the process and dumping it on the chair beside him.

He started on his food and took up observing his surroundings again. The apple was sweet and he quite enjoyed it; thinking it was going to be sour. While munching on his apple; he eyed the trio in the corner of his eye as the braided youth laughed and swung an arm around the black haired Asian. Said teen shrugged the arm off and glared at the braided one, saying something that made the other crack up in laughter again.

They looked like very good friends and Harry felt himself grow envious of that. He really wanted friends too and befriend others; he just had to get rid of his shyness towards other people. Take the first step like his god father always told him when the man was particularly feeling like acting like an adult.

Food eaten and finished Harry planted his hands in his lap while he waited for the time to go by. He had taken less time on eating than he usually did and it might have been because he was starting to get nervous again as the clock ticked by and got closer to one.

He wondered how his class would be like, what sort of people they were and how he was going to fit into their group. He didn't know what to expect really and could only try and imagine what was going to happen during the meeting. His stomach was beginning to act up and make little swirls that weren't that comfortable.

His eyes sought out his surroundings again to try and distract his growing nervousness from growing bigger: a task that he failed miserably at and only served to make him focus even more on it.

He didn't know why; but Harry had the sudden sensation that it was going to be a long day and that he still had lots of things still waiting ahead of him.

**AN:** Hey, look it's Zechs! I actually had no intention of including him in this story but when I was thinking about who should be the tennis coach I just thought of him out of the blue. Somehow the idea spoke to me and I thought, why not? I hope you all liked this new chapter and I'm promising more meetings and talking between Harry and the G-boys in the next chapter. I just wanted them to start noticing each other before jumping into a conversation. Well, I'm off to bed now, or rather I'm already in bed since I'm laying with my laptop in my lap (haha, lap – laptop). Anyway, I see you guys next time okay? /Lin


	4. Chapter Three First Troubles In School

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and god father are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **Hi again! I've been really in a writing mood recently so here's another chapter of SC. You're lucky, it's nearly a thousand words over my usual word count.

As you will notice I'm gonna try and not delve too much into the school subjects and only mention them in passing. What is of interest is the people Harry meet right, and not what his actual education. Not that education isn't important, but you get what I mean. It would take too much time to explain the contents of every single lesson here. You'll just have to use your imagination. XP /Lin

Second Chances

Chapter 3

* * *

"The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss."

Thomas Carlyle

* * *

If time had been going at the light of speed before, then it had made a drastic u-turn and adopted a speed slower than that of a true Sunday driver. However staring at the clock as the minutes and seconds ticked by, maybe wasn't such a good idea and urging it on didn't seem like such a spectacular idea either for that matter.

At one time a girl had thrown him a short curious look that had had Harry startled for how to react to and he eventually thought he'd try smiling at her. It must have come off as more of a grimace though; since the girl had frowned at him like he was some weirdo. She returned to her conversation with her friends; the others throwing him glances and giggling.

Harry felt himself grow more and more uneasy and hesitant. His sudden jolt to a chair falling over nearby showed that his strings were getting tighter by the second.

It came as a relief when the students started clearing the room in small groups to go off to wherever their classes where gathering. He purposefully waited them out and saw the cobalt eyed boy leave with his two friends when the majority of the teenagers had vacated the cafeteria.

He breathed a sigh when he was alone again; the others already long gone leaving just him and lunch lady of course, who started collecting forgotten trays and trash left out on the tables.

Harry was startled out of his musings when she finally came over to his table.

"You alright dear?" She said and smiled softly at him.

Harry looked up into pale brown eyes enveloped by strands of graying hair. He fumbled with his words before answering her.

"Just nervous I guess." He swallowed. "I wonder if I'll fit in?"

A knowing look entered her eyes and Harry was comforted by the familiarity he felt towards her that was similar to some of the older maids back home. She retrieved his tray and paused for a second.

"Don't worry about fitting in, you'll find your place soon enough. Just give it time." She gave a short nod at him and walked back to behind the disk; Harry's tray being the last one.

He sat still for another few seconds before he rose to his feet; a determined look in his eyes.

The hallways were almost empty of students; they must have gone to their respective classrooms already, he thought. He brought out the slip of paper he'd been given and found the letter and number of the classroom he was supposed to go.

He needed to get to classroom A219 on the second floor and fast. It was only ten minutes left or so for him to get there. A directional description accompanied the number and he found that the classroom was located on the second floor in the main building. Walking quickly he found a staircase that took him to the next floor and checked of the numbers one after the other.

The short journey took him to a classroom further down the hall and standing outside the wooden door he felt his nerves adding extra speed t his thumping heart. He could hear laughter and shouts from the individuals within and see the blurred images of bodies through the frosted glass window that had the numbers of the classroom glued to it.

He grasped the knob and swung the door open slowly. The chatter of the room grew loud as he entered and he took in the students sitting in groups on chairs or upon the desks themselves. Several threw him glances; probably thinking it was the teacher but seeing that it was just another student they went back to talking again.

Standing still for a moment, Harry shoved one hand in his pocket while the other finally closed the door. He tried finding an empty seat without really looking into anyone's eyes and spied one just at the back of the room. Right beside familiar cobalt blue that had Harry falter a bit in his steps when he noticed the other was looking at him. He cast down his eyes; pulling out the chair and dumping his bag to his right, while concentrating on a discolored spot on the desk.

He was in the same class as the Asian teen. What were the odds of that ever happening, he thought.

The door opened again to reveal a strict looking man with glasses; holding a stack of papers that he put down on the teacher's desk. The man seemed like any other teacher; or so Harry thought since he hadn't met any typical teachers and he was only basing that judgment on the few movies he'd seen. Dress pants, shirt and a tie made out the man's outfit for the day. Dark blonde hair was brushed back; only a few short strands hanging freely onto his forehead. Semi-dark blue eyes scanned the classroom and everyone immediately quieted down. Impressed by this simple action Harry began wonder what kind of teacher he would be.

"Most of you know me already but for those who don't, my name is Treize Kushrenada and I will be your homeroom teacher for your senior year."

He turned to the white board and wrote his name in a neat and tidy handwriting in the upper left corner.

"I will also be teaching you in History so we will be seeing more of each other later this week. First, any questions so far?"

No one opted to speak up and he took this as a sign to continue on. The man went on to talk a bit about the school itself that seemed to be a standard subject of each starting year, along with school rules and other important information.

Harry tried to keep up with the man's speech but he soon felt himself growing more lost by the mass of information to take in all at once. He ventured a look at the Asian teen to see the other with his face and eyes turned to the windows. Watching the boy as discreetly as he could, Harry took a better look this time around to really observe the other's features, or as much he could see from his angle.

The boy seemed bored; like he'd been through this before and which probably was the case too. He had his chin supported in his right hand and face turned away from Harry; really only giving him a good look of his messy chocolate brown hair and none of his other facial features.

Meanwhile Mr. Kushrenada was finished with the last required facts that they had to give the students.

"Now that we're done with that, let us do a short introduction of ourselves, starting with you on the corner there." He said, taking to leaning back on the desk and addressed a male student sitting at the front row.

The student in question, an African-American, blinked in surprise and was quiet in thought for what to say.

"Only your name and favorite interest is fine if you can't think of anything more to say." Kushrenada said to help the boy along.

"Dean Thomas, I play soccer." He said with an enthusiastic smile.

"Good. Next?"

"May Kerensky… I like hanging out with friends and going to the mall." A smaller girl said.

The rest of the names were a blur to Harry and it went on until they had gone through almost every one of them, except for Harry and the other boy. The class's focus had shifted with each student and they all turned around in their seats to follow each one of their introductions.

When another row had ended, Harry realized that it was soon his turn and twisted in fingers in slight apprehension for what was to come. His mind had begun thinking up different reactions the other students might have to what he had to say. Maybe they would all laugh at him? Ignore him or stare at him? What was worst?

"Yes?"

Harry shook himself out of his thoughts and noticed that he now had the teacher and the whole class's attention. He felt himself twisting in his seat and trying not to meet anyone's eye for fear of ridicule.

He was so out of his comfort zone; that was for sure! He'd much prefer a half days of practice with Sirius instead of this, he thought wildly; trying to collect his thoughts long enough to utter a comprehensible sentence.

"H-harry Potter." He grimaced inwardly at his stuttering.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Potter, you transferred here from England, am I right?" The male said, showing interest in the tone of his voice.

The few students that hadn't been paying attention to the introductions now turned fully in their seats to observe the new student; a few craning their necks to get a better look at him.

"Y-yes…" Harry replied and wished that they would all stop staring at him like that.

He thought he heard someone whisper, 'so _that's_ how a British accent sound like!' and 'I've never seen one from England before'. He sunk even further down into his seat; almost wishing the chair would swallow him up and spare him from this torture.

"Any interests?" Kushrenada asked after a while of waiting.

"Oh!" Harry let out, hitting his knee into the desk and reddened at the light laughter that rang out in response.

They must think of him as a pansy or something with how insecure he was being and acting, he thought miserably.

"Uhm… well, I play, tennis…" he trailed off in a weak voice and buried his eyes deeper into the wood.

God, somebody please kill him right now! Sirius would die of laughter if he saw him behaving like this, for sure.

Harry was too into his own embarrassment to take notice of the Asian teen until the boy spoke up at the teacher's request; quieting down any residue laughter.

"Heero Yuy. Computers and soccer." He delivered in a short response, looking straight at the teacher and almost daring the man to ask him to offer more than that.

The teacher though only had a small smile at the end of the presentations and reached out for a section of the papers that he had earlier put to the side on the desk. He split them into five separate piles and had each student from the front row pass them back to the others.

"This is a copy of the school rules and other things that I have already talked about, so there will be no excuses for rule breaking in the future." He added as the papers traveled down and a few students groaned empathetically at this.

A piece of paper landed on Harry's desk but he didn't look up because of his red face.

Kushrenada took the remaining papers in hand.

"This is your personal schedules, before you go please come to the front to fetch yours."

The teacher wished them a pleasant day and the students began filing out; retrieving their schedule before escaping the classroom.

Harry raised his head in time to see the Asian teen fish up his things, grabbing his schedule and leave the classroom in a sedate pace; never casting a look back into the classroom and Harry.

Harry sighed audibly and thumped his head into the desk.

"Attending High School is quite a leap from home tutoring, Mr. Potter."

The raven haired teen flinched and nearly went crashing into the floor with surprise as he hadn't been aware that the teacher had yet to leave the room himself. He'd thought he'd left with the students.

Kushrenada sported a humored expression when Harry directed his focus onto the man again. The man held out a sheet of paper to Harry.

"I didn't mean to startle you." He said, light amusement lacing his voice.

Harry righted himself, collected his shoulder bag and stood up gingerly.

"No… that's alright." The British teen said and accepted his schedule.

"If you have any questions concerning school, please feel free to ask my anytime. I understand that this is a whole new environment and experience for you." The teacher went on to say.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Harry replied a bit stiff; his little scene from earlier still fresh in his memory.

The man didn't take any notice of or comment Harry's mild rigidness.

"You're most welcome. I would be happy to hear of how your stay here is coming along whenever you feel the need to. Don't feel shy to come by my office." The man gave Harry a last look before checking his wrist watch. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a staff meeting to attend. I will see you tomorrow then, Mr. Potter."

"Uh, yes."

The man made his way back to the teacher's desk; fetching his papers.

Harry bit his lip.

"Sir?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Yes, Mr. Potter?" Kushrenada turned back to him with a questioning look in his eyes.

"About my having been home tutored, could, could you please not mention that to the others?"

The man paused in his actions to think about the teen's query.

"I see no problem with that. May I ask why though?"

The raven haired shuffled his feet on the ground.

"It's just, I don't want them thinking of me like, you know, some rich brat…" He finally said awkwardly.

"I understand." The man's features softened slightly and he smiled warmly. "I won't mention it in class or around the students and forward your wish to the other teachers at the same time."

"Thank you sir!" Harry said, feeling better.

The man left the teen standing alone in the classroom. He'd been worrying about how his teacher would be like but he was happy to know that he was a decent guy.

He left the room not long after the other; looking forward to get out into the fresh air again and escape the stuffiness of the classroom.

* * *

"So how was school?" Sirius asked as soon as Harry had gotten over the threshold into their house.

Harry bent down to remove his shoes.

"It was alright." He said after a while.

"Alright? That's all?" Sirius said and followed Harry into the living room.

The teen swung his bag onto the couch and threw himself against its backrest; letting out a large sigh of emotional exhaustion.

"It's the only the first day." He said in way of explanation.

"Well, yes, but just alright?" Sirius persisted and joined his god son on the couch; arms resting on his knees.

"We were supposed to introduce ourselves." He said.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at this that seemed to say 'what's so wrong with that?'.

Harry frowned, not really willing to go any further than that.

"They laughed at me."

Sirius cocked his head.

"What'd you do?" He asked.

"A fool out of myself." Harry said and budged when Sirius sent him a look. "I stammered and hit my leg in the desk, what else do you want to know? The point is that I made a fool out of myself and they think I'm weird." He let out in rushed and glum voice.

The older man smiled sympathetically.

"Harry, it takes a little more than that to be branded a weirdo or something similar to that. Trust me, I've been there and even spent quite a few holidays there." He finished with a comforting grin and nudged the youth in the side playfully.

Harry scrunched his eyebrows and purged his lips, but he couldn't help the small smile that still sneaked its way through.

"That's it lad! Don't let the others get you down just because they happened to laugh at you." Sirius swung around to fully face Harry; a leg bent on the couch with the other touching the floor. "Look, if you happen to do something like trip or stammer that makes the others laugh. Just laugh with them and see it for what it really is; a funny little accident and a perfect ice breaker for conversations."

"That's easy for you to say."

"No one's an expert from the start. Why do you think you have to keep practice tennis to get better?"

Harry avoided his god father's look with a small pout. He kind of always disliked it when Sirius was right about things. The man always became so smug and cocky for a couple of days at least when he sprouted the occasional useful advice.

He yelped when a large and rough hand ruffle his hair; making it look all the more like a bird's nest. He growled at the male while fending off the hand.

Sirius launched at the teen and pulled the struggling youth to him; holding him around the waist with one arm and rubbing down hard on Harry's scalp.

"Quit it!" Shouted Harry and pulled at the arm holding him in place.

Sirius laughed.

"Not until you stop beating down on yourself and start acting like a man!" He sent back and kept up his ministrations despite the frequent protests from the bundle in his arm.

While Harry felt his scalp hurting a bit from the treatment it wasn't enough to cause real damage and his god father had perfected this torture technique ever since he was a child.

When the man eventually let go of the youth Harry took a breath full of air when he was released. He glared at the man who seemed indifferent to it and merely reached for the remote; flipping on the TV.

Harry appeared offended for what lasted for a few seconds before shaking his head miserably. Some things never changed.

* * *

After the small 'pick me up' yesterday from his god father, Harry felt a bit more secure going to his second day of school. He was relieved to see that no one commented about the day before and he was being blissfully ignored by the other students. The bad thing though, was that they had already established social groups between each other and spent all of the breaks talking to each other.

If he hadn't felt like it yesterday then Harry certainly felt left out today. Even that silent Asian teen was involved in a conversation with that Dean boy; well, the conversation was mostly kept going by the dark skinned boy and, Heero was it, added a comment here and there. Harry didn't mean eavesdrop, but he gathered that they were talking about the try outs to the soccer club later this week on Friday.

Dean had been in the middle of talking about any promising new freshmen when the Mr. Kushrenada entered the classroom with a small wagon trailing after him.

His first official and public lesson in history had consisted of signing off that you'd received your new school literature. They started off on American based history and Harry felt sadly lost trying to keep up with what the teacher were talking about. His notes at the end of the lesson looked more like incomprehensible drabbles than real handwriting. He'd have to work on listening and writing at the same time.

Math was a bit better and he actually had no problems keeping up with the class as soon as he had sufficiently figured out Ms. Une's teaching methods. Numbers were that he were already familiar with was definitively easier compared to old American presidents, no offence. He supposed all countries had different focal points when it came to teaching history.

The day seemed to go by much faster than it had yesterday and left Harry feeling more empty-headed at the end of it. He hoped it would all get better when he got more used to it all in due time. He couldn't expect to get it all at the second day right?

Third day saw some progress when a girl had said hello to him when he'd arrived for his biology lesson. It was a girl from another class and he'd been, more than a little, thrilled at the real first verbal contact with another student since he got there (he didn't count bumping into people).

She'd introduced herself as Cho Chang and invited him to sit with her. They'd talked a bit about school and she'd been interested to hear about him coming from London. Then asked about how it was living there, Big Ben and what not that had entered her mind at the moment.

He'd been in the middle about hearing about her earlier years in school and her friends when the female biology teacher, Sally Po, walked into the classroom. She'd whispered they could talk again next lesson if he wanted.

He had an equal experience as history in this new subject and had felt out of depth in biology; having only touched on the theoretical parts during his homeschooling until now. It struck him in hindsight now how different attending a public school really was from what he was used to, but he was determined not to let it pull him down and keep him from doing his best.

Slowly but surely people began to say hi to him now and again when he went to and from class and he did his best to do the same in return.

By the fifth and last day of school that week, he had managed to make contact despite his awkwardness with two other boys in his class, Danny and Chris, of whom the latter was already a member of the tennis club since his freshman year. He'd been happy to hear that Harry was going to try out for the tennis club and promised to cheer him on later on that afternoon.

Chris was a dark brunette born in the US with an Italian mother and American father. The boy had offered some more information about his coach and bragged about how he thought Zechs was the best coach he'd ever had. Harry had nothing to worry about he'd told him and given him a friendly pat on the shoulder before his friend butted in thinking the other was bragging a little too much about his club.

Danny was of a lighter shade of hair color than that of his friend and played for the school's soccer team. Apparently so did Dean and Heero from their class and Harry had sent a short look in the Asian teen's direction at the admission. He should've guessed it from the introductions.

The Japanese, well half really which he'd also learned from his new friends, teen didn't like to talk that much, or at least he didn't volunteer in conversations and such without a good reason or if his friends or fellow team mates approached him. Though Danny said even him, being on the same team, sometimes had problems approaching the boy. He seems like the kind of guy to enjoy being on his own you know, the brunette had said and added that despite that he was a damn good player.

Harry could relate to the want and need of being alone sometimes, but he guessed Heero preferred it around the clock. He couldn't help wondering what the teen were up to if he was on his own most of the time. He had mentioned computers on the first day, so maybe he sat with his computer when he got back home? Harry enjoyed the occasional computer game and net surfing but he had a hard time imagining sitting in front of it more than one to two hours, at the most, every other day or so. He was more of the athletic type of guy; he flourished when he was able to work up a sweat and enjoyed the great feeling you got after practice.

It was another thing that Harry had noticed lately and that was his curiosity to learn more about the cobalt blue eyed teen. Well, at least more than what little he got from the other two boys. Like how was he when he played soccer and was around more close friends. He wondered if that braided teen and other Asian teen were two of those. They had seemed close.

* * *

Afternoon came rolling along and various students spread out to attend the try outs, go home or if you were a member of a non-athletic club; go to the appointed classroom for club activities.

Harry was standing by his locker; putting the books he needed for homework in his shoulder bag before retrieving his sports bag with his tennis rackets that he'd brought with him today for the try outs.

"Hey, Harry!"

The raven haired teen spotted Chris coming his way with a similar formed bag of his own slung over his shoulder. The boy's eyes shone with excitement as he came closer.

"You ready?" He asked.

"As much as I'll ever be." Harry grinned.

They arrived at the tennis courts and Chris showed him where the boy's dressing rooms were located. They shifted into shorts, t-shirts and appropriate shoes and went off with their bags in hand to a collecting group. It seemed to consist of mainly freshmen and one or two sophomores that appeared to be trying out for the second time.

Chris wished him good luck and went to join senior and sophomore members of the club standing on the side waiting for the try outs to start. The dark haired teen sunk into a conversation with his peers while they observed the newcomers.

Harry was curious to see how the older members how the club were on the court; truth be told, he hadn't played that much against people his own age. He'd mostly played against his god father and old friends to the man offering to give Harry an extra edge by matching up with him. You didn't have a former pro player as god father and coach for nothing.

"Can I have your attention please?"

The group's chattering quieted down when Zechs, the tennis coach, came into view with a clipboard in hand. He was dressed in black and white Jerseys with the school emblem and 'Irvington High School Tennis Club' sowed onto the front. Harry noticed that some of the seniors also had the same dress or only the jackets on.

"When I call your name, step onto the court and wait for my instructions."

Harry watched the first two freshmen got called up and enter the court. The rest of them gathered along the fence and he felt a bit bad for the two boys as they were clearly nervous by all the people watching. He'd learned to shut everyone else out when he was playing to keep from getting distracted, but before that he'd been a mess so he could empathize.

Apparently they were supposed to play a best out of three games match against each other and through that it would be determined whether you passed or not.

The game started and ended pretty fast with Zechs interrupting them after the first game and thanking them for their participation. They'd evidently failed the try out and this made Harry aware of how strict Zechs really was. Not a surprise though if you considered that they won the state championship last year. Obviously not anyone could join the club without some skills to show for it.

They passed through a number of names with only two freshmen having passed so far and just barely.

Harry had settled down to sit on the ground; waiting for his turn considering his surname had to be among the last ones. He watched the group diminish until only ten or so students were left standing; another freshman and sophomore having joined the other members of the club.

"Harry Potter." Zechs called.

Finally it was his turn! Harry thought and agilely got up to his feet from having stretched his legs. Never forget stretching.

He reached a hand into his bag and pulled out his racket; the black and emerald glistening in the overhead sun. Pushing open the gate he walked onto the court.

To his surprise though; it was not another student that walked up with him but the coach himself who had removed his jacket and held a racket in hand. Harry sent a look in Chris's direction who only shook his head; he didn't get this situation either and the majority of the members were eyeing first their coach confusedly and then Harry.

"I thought you'd get more of a challenge playing against me." Zechs said in a way of explaining and the confused seniors turned curious eyes on Harry with that comment. "First serve is yours."

Somehow his wish of not standing out too much had been gruesomely crushed, sort of, by the tennis coach. He'd thought he'd play a short game against a freshman and that would be it. He couldn't very well deny the coach himself; so he took up a position on the opposite side of the court.

Zechs picked up a few balls from a basket, putting some in his pocket and shooting a few over to Harry. The teen caught them with his racket and deposited all but one in his pocket.

He volleyed the ball a few times, before taking up his position. He felt his focus sharpening and he only had eyes for the ball, court and his opponent. Grasping the ball and throwing it up in the air; he swung his racket back before swinging it back in a powerful arch and shot the ball over the net.

The long haired blonde man was already there though to return it back with nearly no effort at all.

They started up a long game for the first point and Harry finally managed to win the first point by returning a short volley by the net.

He righted himself up and didn't notice his breathing until cheers erupted from the sidelines. He saw Chris shouting at him and grinning a mile long with an incredulous look in his face shared by the boys standing around him.

Harry felt his cheeks go red with joy and embarrassment and he turned his attention back to the coach.

"You reached up to expectations and then some Harry."

"Thank you sir." Harry said.

"Didn't I tell you to call me Zechs?" The man said smiling.

"You did si-Zechs." The teen caught himself from doing it again.

"No question about passing. I'll see you next week in practice."

Harry exited the court after the man and was met by a gesticulating Chris and the rest of the tennis club behind him.

"Harry! I didn't know you were that good. You should have told me!"

"It's nothing…"

"Nothing?"

Harry winced slightly at the high pitched voice and so did some of the other students too.

"You managed to take a point from Zechs; no one has done that before."

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"No one? Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Chris answered and some other seniors added their voice too.

"How long have you've been playing?" A dark skinned boy asked from behind Chris.

"Uh, must be, since I was six…" He trailed of when he saw the looks on the others faces. "Did I say something wrong?" He wondered when he got no response.

"That's over ten years!" Someone said disbelievingly from around the back.

"But that explains how good he is." Another voice said.

"Sure does." A tall dark blonde boy said and nodded.

"We're so going to take the championship this year with you here." Chris said excitedly and grinned again.

Several voices shouted their agreements and some began talking eagerly amongst each others.

"Me?" Harry said a bit confusedly, the crowd of students circling him disturbing him a bit, albeit he was still glad. "Didn't you win last year?"

"We did." Confirmed Chris. "But last year's team was made up of only seniors who have all already graduated."

"Oh." Harry let out.

That explained it.

After they had gone back to the changing room and having changed; the members began to break up after a while and waved good bye to Harry and Chris as they went out the door.

Harry pulled on his regular shirt and sat down to tie his laces.

"You gotta show me some of your moves sometime." Chris said as he put his shoes back into his bag.

"Moves?" Harry queried with a slight frown.

Chris shook his head and took a swing with an invisible racket to make his point.

"Yeah, moves, like tips or something."

Harry blinked before replying.

"Ah, sure."

"Nice." The boy smiled and walked out the door. "See you next week!"

"See you!" Harry called back and saw the teen leave.

He got the laces on his last shoe done and made a last check to make sure that he didn't accidently leave anything behind.

* * *

The late afternoon sun shone down on him but it was still pleasantly warm outside. The grounds were totally deserted; or so he thought.

The closer he got to the soccer fields he could hear shouts and yells coning from the one closest to one of the school buildings.

He came up behind a row of bleachers and rounded them before stopping in front of the field. Five youths from different races were passing a soccer ball between each other and he instantly recognized three of them.

One of them was the messy haired teen, Heero, and the other two he'd seen with him in the cafeteria. He didn't recognize the last two but the tallest of them seemed to have some Latin-American origin and a weird hairstyle that didn't seem to be anything but in the way of his sight. The last one was a light haired blonde teen had more normal hair. At least it wasn't long or set strangely.

Harry could tell from their small play that they were all good; but the braided one and Heero seemed to be a notch above the others when it came to technique.

He slipped both of his bags to the ground and leaned onto the railing as he observed them.

Memories of his childhood playing with the local team surfaced and he smiled faintly in remembrance. They were good memories and he missed those times a little. While he had no regrets about choosing tennis, it was still a one man's sport. There were doubles but you could never play in a team like in soccer and that's what he missed most of all. He missed the camaraderie and friendship between the players and that if you screwed up the others jumped in to support you, while in tennis Harry had to rely on solely himself.

Sighing to himself, Harry turned to pick up his bags.

"Watch out!" A voice yelled from behind him.

Looking up and back to the field, Harry saw a ball coming straight towards him and he barely had the time to raise his hands and deftly caught it before it could do a number on his face.

He blinked a few times at the ball and then heard footsteps coming his way.

"Hey, are you okay?" The braided teen came up to him with a raised eyebrow when he eyed the ball in Harry's hands. "Nice catch."

"Thanks." Harry replied automatically.

He noticed the other four watching him with various looks and the purple eyed youth, he wondered if he wore contacts, suddenly frowned at him for a few seconds before his eyes alighted.

"You're that guy!" He shouted and pointed at the raven haired teen.

"'That guy?'" The other Asian boy asked with a delicately raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, from first day of school, I thought I'd seen you from somewhere before." The braided teen said smugly like he was pleased with his newfound knowledge.

He looked Harry up and down.

"You're kind of tall for a freshman." He observed. Harry must've been about the same height as him.

"That's because he is a senior." Heero said behind the long haired teen's back.

Harry noticed how Heero's cobalt blue eyes stared him down while he said this. He shuffled his feet uneasily. What was up with that look?

"A senior?" The boy turned surprised eyes first to Heero and then back on Harry again. "But..."

"Maybe he's a transfer student?" The blonde spoke up and looked expectantly to the raven haired boy.

"Yes, from England." Harry answered.

"Cool!" The other youth said while the blonde shook his head.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Quatre." He held out a hand to Harry which the other shook.

"Harry."

He let go off Harry's hand and turned to the others.

"This is Duo." He motioned to the braided youth who gave a wink and grin in return. "Trowa is the tall one, Wufei to the left and the last one is Heero." Quatre finished introducing them.

"I know." Harry said and reddened a bit at the weird looks he got from the response.

"We're in the same class." Heero said.

"You've never mentioned you got a transfer student in your class." Duo complained like he couldn't believe this vital information had been kept from him.

"Now you know." Heero deadpanned.

"I hope you didn't exert yourself." Duo threw back annoyed. "Question; you ever play soccer before?" He asked Harry.

"I used to play football; I mean soccer, from when I was six and until I was twelve." He replied.

"Which position?"

"I was the goalkeeper, but-"

He yelped at the hand that grabbed a hold of his arm and the ball fell down to the ground.

Duo pulled him under the railing; Harry barely managing to duck so as to avoid getting the metal rod straight into his forehead and dragged him onto the field.

"Oi!"

The others followed behind and Quatre hurried to catch up to them.

"What do you think you're doing Duo?" He said when he came up alongside Harry; throwing looks between the two.

"I was wondering the exact same thing." Harry let out confused and annoyed; wondering if he should call for help. Not every day near perfect strangers started pulling you around by the arm was it?

Duo ignored them both; only letting go of his arm when they'd reached the goal and he left Harry standing there to go and search a bag that was probably his. He fished out a pair of gloves that was for goalkeepers.

Wait here now, Harry thought dimly as the gloves were shoved into his hands. Is he really…

"Maxwell, what's gotten into you now?" The Asian teen, Wufei, asked exasperatedly.

"He said he was a goalkeeper."

"So?" Wufei said with a raised eyebrow.

"So…we don't have a goalie." Duo supplied, sighed and took it upon himself to shove Harry's hands into the gloves.

Wufei rolled his eyes.

"I know that, but you can't just grab someone. Besides the try outs were earlier this afternoon."

"And?" Duo said and took the ball the other teen had picked up; backing away from the others and the goal.

He placed the ball at the mark for penalty shoots and backed up again.

"Hold on." Harry said.

Duo took a few quick steps and kicked the ball, hard, to the lower left hand corner.

By instinct Harry threw himself at the ball and clutched it to him, as he rolled once on the ground before coming to a stop. He breathed out and blinked once, twice, before sitting up looking dazed.

"I caught it." He said, sounding astonished, and stared down at the ball in his hands.

He raised his head to see the other four staring at him with shocked faces, and then a whoop of joy from one braided, and had to be crazy, teen.

"We've found our goalkeeper!"

This brought the others out of their shock only to enter a new one.

Harry dropped the ball.

"What?"

**AN:** Haha! Oh dear…Harry's in trouble now. Kind of. XP I noticed that as a consequence to adding Zechs into the story, I've started an avalanche of OZ teachers…sort of. So now I've also added Treize, Une, Sally and then Dean Thomas as a fellow, soccer crazed, classmate to the story, Cho Chang is there too and who knows who else I'll add… I wonder how Doctor J would be in chemistry… :grin:

Do you guys think listening to Celine Dion will make you unusually mushy and sappy? Since I've wanted to just throw Harry and Heero together to see what happens for quite some time now after listening to her non-stop for an hour or two now. XP That would really mess up my plot though…


	5. Chapter Four Awakening Of Old Memories

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and god father are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **I know that this is, really, late, but I managed to type this out in between schoolwork. I do feel guilty for not updating my stories but I have to focus on passing my courses and I have no intention of redoing any of them, thank you very much. I hope this update will make some of you happy though!

Second Chances

Chapter 4

* * *

"I hate to see things done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly, if it be wrong leave it undone."

Bernard Gilpin

* * *

The braided teen's outburst left Harry lost for words. He only got his ability of speech back when said teen started talking, more like excited shouting, about future practices and things they needed to get done with Harry on the team. The speed of which the other was going and not stumbling once over the words was impressive, he had to admit.

He raised his hands to get the other's attention, but only Heero and the taller teen seemed to notice him at all at first. They exchanged looks while the other two were busy trying to get their friend to settle down somewhat but not succeeding.

Harry's patience soon ran out.

"Wait just a minute here!" he shouted at last, more than slightly annoyed with how things seemed to accelerate without him having any say in things. "I can't be your goalkeeper." He rushed to say.

Duo immediately stopped in his tracks at this, frowning largely, and reined in his emotions enough to give a reply.

"Why not?" He asked, truly confused.

"I'm already a member of the tennis club." Harry said pointedly, in a lower tone now.

"Oh." The teen's excitement deflated in an instant and Harry almost felt bad for the crystal clear disappointment showing in the other's features. "You sure? Wu-man's an okay enough goalie," Said teen sent Duo a dirty glare. "but we need stronger defense if we wanna reach the state championships. It's not too late to switch clubs…" Duo said in a hopeful voice.

"I'm sure." He said and began removing the gloves, making his statement all the more clearer.

He handed them back to the longhaired boy who accepted them, still with that disappointed look and Harry thought he even saw a childish pout forming but it could have been his imagination.

"Sure you won't change your mind?" Duo asked again, acting very much like a kid who had been denied his weekend treat..

"Yes, sorry, I have enough already with tennis practice at home, school and now also club practice on top of that." Harry said.

"Okay." Duo said and managed a smile in return. "Maybe we could chat or share lunch sometimes?" He asked.

Harry smiled back.

"Sure, I'd like that."

Duo flashed him a grin, some of his disappointment already disappearing.

"Great! See you in school after the weekend, yeah?"

"It was nice meeting you Harry." Quatre said as Harry handed the gloves back over to Duo.

Harry waved a goodbye, leaving the others standing on the field and went to pick up his bags. He waved once more at Duo's added farewell shout.

He cast a last look in Heero's direction; catching the other staring at him again before he turned his back to them.

All the while on his way home he tried ignoring the slight burning in his cheeks.

* * *

Harry spent his weekend on the court with Sirius, working on the homework he'd been given and unpacking the packages with his things that had finally arrived. Having practice almost every day after school and now also club activities, didn't leave him much time to do other things in between. He had morning practice on Saturday but was left with Sunday off so as not to overwork himself and let his body rest. He was thinking that Sundays was going to be his godsend after learning of the new improved practice schedule Sirius had made for him.

He'd thought Sirius was gonna let up on practice hours a bit for the sake of him joining the tennis club; which his godfather did but the added club hours restored the amount to what it had been before. Seeing as he had school from eight to three, then two hours club practice and then an additional two at home, it was going to be a long year and many demanding weeks before his whole school year would be finished.

Like he said, he was very grateful that he had half of Saturday and whole Sunday off. He didn't think he would be able to manage it otherwise. He still had a life you know and budding friendships to take care off. Friends were something he'd been in lack of growing up and spending his time on the court day in and out didn't seem like the right soil to cultivate friends, lest they abandon him for the lack of time he spent with them. There was only so much time for small chats in between classes now after all except for that one hour of lunch.

* * *

He was back in school on Monday and was greeted by Chris at his locker. The other boy couldn't stop talking about the upcoming practices and preseason games. Harry hummed and murmured his responses when he felt it was appropriate, his mind on something else, and throwing a glance to the corner of the classroom as they entered.

Heero was sitting at his usual spot and in his usual posture, eyes to the usual window while he waited for the usual class to start. Harry had half expected half wanted, why he did not know, the teen to stare at him again like he had done almost the whole week before. However Heero kept his eyes glued to the scenery outside.

He separated from Chris to go to his seat, sitting down in his chair as he again thought about that stare. As if on cue Heero seemed to acknowledge his presence and turned around in his seat to send him a brief look.

Deep cobalt eyes zeroed in on him and caught his eyes in the other ones. This, just having thought about it, caught Harry quite off guard and the intensity of which the other was looking at him was somewhere between odd and uncomfortable. How they seemed to almost stab into him with their mere force left him unable to blink or turn away from them. Almost afraid if he did the other would jump onto him for his lack of attention.

He was saved by one of their teachers bumping lightly into the doorframe from the load of material in her arms and effectively ended the staring match when Heero dismissed him again. The chocolate haired youth returned to his window gazing and Harry was left utterly confused. What _was_ the deal with this guy?

Why did he keep on staring at him like that? Did Heero have some kind of problem with him? He would've asked him just that but something held him back in the end and Harry kept his eyes to the front of the classroom for the remaining lesson.

By the time the bell rang for lunch break Harry had temporarily forgotten about the other teen for the sake of trying to keep up in class. While shoving his things into his bag, a familiar face popped into the doorway and seemingly searched the classroom until it found its target.

"Hey Harry!" Duo shouted when he spotted the teen halfway into the action of pushing his chair back in and weaved his way through the throng of students to meet up with the raven haired.

"Hi." Harry said in small bit of surprise. He hadn't expected the other teen to go to such lengths to see him, even going as far as to look up his schedule.

"Would you mind spending the lunch with us?" The other asked in one beat, sitting down on the corner of Harry's desk.

"Us?" The raven haired asked confusedly.

"Yeah, you know, me, Heero," Duo gestured to the Asian teen, who had come up to Harry's side without him noticing, with a jerk of the thumb. "and the others from Friday." He added.

Harry sent a look at Heero who, of course, had that now familiar stare pointed at him. He averted his eyes; eyebrows slightly scrunched together but shook himself out of it. Duo didn't seem bothered by it and maybe this was how Heero always behaved, he wouldn't know since he'd only known the other for a maximum of a week.

"Sure." He said, thinking it wouldn't do to say no when he was finally making some progress in the friends' area.

"Come on then!" Duo reached out to grab his arm and started pulling him along.

Harry wondered offhandedly if Duo also did this often, you know, dragging people around as Heero in turn didn't seem to think this was anything unusual. Something told him that he had gotten himself involved with some more than ordinary people and he was completely being dragged and adapted into their pace.

On their way to the cafeteria, and judging from the many looks they got from the other students, Harry had his suspicions reaffirmed that he had managed to get himself involved with people that did not belong to the average norm. On the other hand though, he couldn't really be considered the fair judge of that and what was considered normal at an American high school.

The cafeteria was as always bustling with noises and loud yells and conversations. While standing in line Harry found out that Duo was particularly fond of almost anything that could be labeled under the title of junk food; as he helped himself to the French fries, hamburger and apple pie to only mention a few food products that landed on his tray somewhere on the way.

Harry had a hard time imagining the teen getting all of that down without feeling incredibly nauseous after it and he was bit green by the thought alone.

Duo led them to a table and they barely sat down before he attacked the tray. He dug into his food the moment his butt touched his seat and continued to amaze his new friend by inhaling the food in what must have been an inhuman speed.

"So, how's school?" The boy said in between mouthfuls and Heero raised an eyebrow at the crumbs that fell from his friend's mouth to the table.

"It's good." Harry said truthfully. He was finally starting to get some sort of hang of things around here. However small that was, it was still fun and an enjoyable experience taking it all into consideration.

"Just wait till midterms, then you'll start wishing you were anywhere else but here." Duo said and shivered in remembrance of an especially bad memory.

"It's not bad if you actually study." The Japanese teen said and took another bite out of his ham sandwich.

"Not everyone has a computer for a brain, Heero." The other replied flippantly taking a bite out of his pie and then another from his hamburger. Harry felt slightly queasy at the combination.

Heero glared at the braided teen but the other shook it off and directed his attention to someone coming up behind Harry.

"Hey, Quat! Over here!" He called over the loud noise of the cafeteria, easily making himself heard over the ruckus.

Harry saw Quatre and the other two from that Friday make their way through the mass to their table. The tallest, Trowa, sent him a short look of recognition before sitting down besides Heero and Wufei frowned at him while Quatre smiled friendly.

"It's nice to see you again." He said pleasantly. "Let me guess, Duo dragged you into eating with him?"

"Not I, we, and I didn't drag him!" The long haired teen protested indignantly, gesturing to both him and Heero raised an eyebrow.

Harry couldn't help but to chuckle at the response from the affronted teen since the blonde had struck on the truth.

"He dragged you by the arm didn't he?" Quatre asked Harry this time, ignoring his friend.

"He did." Harry verified with an amused look.

"Okay, I might have." Duo amended. "Technicalities." He waved it off and Harry was warily reminded of one god father's antics.

"It's bad manners. Don't blame me if you end up in trouble." Quatre said and eyed Duo meaningfully.

"Haven't we had this conversation before?" Duo asked, frowning and tilted his head.

"Yes." Wufei said pointedly and it was obvious that he had been annoyed with it every single time before that too.

Duo hummed none comically and dug into his food again, topic of conversation completely discarded.

"It's a lost case but I tell myself to keep hoping." Quatre said hushed and melodramatically to Harry.

"Hey!" Duo exclaimed. "I'm perfectly fine as I am now, thank you very much. Right Trowa?"

The banged teen raised a delicate eyebrow, speculating over the answer and Duo pouted.

"In your twisted way of thinking you are." Wufei answered in the Latin teen's stead.

"So, how do you know each other?" Harry said in an attempt to stave off the oncoming argument.

Heero threw him a thoughtful glance.

Duo actually stopped the retort he'd had ready and turned to Harry, hummed and dug into his food again, going along with the change of topic.

"Me and Wufei are childhood friends." Duo supplied and Harry had to raise an eyebrow at that himself this time. Those two, childhood friends? Who would've thought?

"Unfortunately so." Wufei added and earned himself a raspberry from said childhood friend.

"I've known Heero since elementary and Quatre and Trowa from junior high school."

"I see."

"What kind of friends do you have in England?"

"Oh." Harry stilled momentarily, suddenly uncomfortable and then took a sip of his drink to stall for more time. Maybe he should have expected this line of conversation to turn back on to him.

"Didn't have any." He said muttered.

He squirmed under their surprised gazes, immediately regretting his answer.

"What do you mean you didn't have any?" Duo asked with a disbelieving eye, looking at him a bit funny.

The silence between them grew awkward and Harry wished he'd kept his mouth shut. Maybe he should've just said told them something.

"I mean, I didn't have any, like close, friends." He tried smoothing it out and pushed his food around on the tray, the slight nervousness showing in his actions.

"Say so from the start man!" Duo laughed.

Harry ignored the slightly hesitant looks from Quatre and the almost piercing one from Heero. He might have fooled Duo but the others didn't seem to be as easy going as their friend. He'd better watch what he said in the future. He was sure they would think him a weirdo if he told them of his not so standard childhood. He really didn't want them start to avoid him or anything if they found out he came from a rich family and benefits.

The rest of the lunch was spent with miscellaneous chatter and choice of topics ranging from annoying teachers and the like. Harry was aware of the occasional looks he got but never returned them as he listened to the humorous escapades the braided teen claimed to have done and been a part of. Some of which probably had been exaggerated from their original story but Harry all the same enjoyed them and the laughs they brought.

He really liked the feeling of having friends, and he'd do his best not to do anything that would deter the others from keep being friends with him.

* * *

Next day found Harry on his own in the middle of roving through his locker in search of his notebook for biology that had he had somehow managed to lose. Though maybe not so surprising with how he didn't exactly keep his locker organized, rather he just put, chucked is more like it, his things into it. Now he had to suffer the consequences and he groaned again when he threw a glance at the clock on the wall in the hallway. Only ten minutes until class started and he still had no clue where it was!

"Having a problem finding your things?" A voice said.

Harry pulled himself from his locker, seeing Cho standing a few feet away with a small smile in place and then several papers rushed out onto the floor when his hand bumped into a pile. He cursed softly and bent down to collect them. Another pair of hands joined him and he smiled sheepishly at the girl.

"Thanks."

"What are you looking for?" She asked.

"My notebook for biology." He sighed.

"Ah, we have a review today for the upcoming test." She stated, although Harry already knew that, and handed him the rest of the papers.

"Exactly." He said mournfully and accepted the sheets.

Cho took one look at his expression and started laughing. The raven haired frowned at the girl.

"What?" He said frustratingly.

"It's not the end of the world Harry. You can share mine during class if you want." She said teasingly and smiled at the now embarrassed teen.

"Uh, thanks."

"No problem."

The first bell rang and students all around began moving in the direction of their classes. Harry pushed the papers inside of the locker again, grabbing his bag and an empty notebook if the biology teacher decided to add some information that they would need for the test. He'd just copy it into the old one when he eventually found it.

He followed the girl to class and true to her word, Cho pushed her notebook halfway towards him and Harry thanked her just as Po came through the door.

At the end of class Cho looked up from her where she and Harry had been sitting.

"Wufei!" She said surprised, making Harry turn his head in the direction of the door.

The Asian teen's eyebrows scrunched together at the sight of Harry and his eyes switched from him to Cho.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Father has requested our presence after school."

"What does he want now?" She asked a bit tiredly, making it seem like a subject she'd been through many times before this.

Harry stared confusedly at them both. Father? He wondered and Cho must have caught the look as she quickly solved his dilemma.

"Wufei's my brother, or twin to be exact." She explained.

"He's your brother?" Harry said, they didn't look any alike at all except for, of course, they were both Asian.

"You know him?" Wufei said half disbelievingly and half disapprovingly at the same time, sending an almost accusing look at his sister while he pointed towards Harry.

The raven haired frowned at the other teen and was reminded by his dislike to Wufei's attitude. Cho only rolled her eyes at her twin and scooped up her books in her arms.

"I'll see you next time in class Harry." She said and gave him a smile.

"Bye." He called after her.

She passed Wufei and gave him a meaningful nudge before walking out of the classroom.

The raven haired teen picked up his bag and made his way to the door where Wufei still lingered and Harry looked unsurely at the teen. When he came side by side with the Asian the other boy stopped him with a hand on his arm. Wufei leaned into Harry's personal space and hissed lowly.

"Don't get any funny ideas with my sister."

"What?" Harry replied startled.

"Don't even think about it." He continued and the hand tightened on the arm.

Harry frowned at Wufei.

"Let go of me." He said and pulled his arm out of the other's grasp.

Wufei leaned back and stepped out into the hallway. He sent a last warning look in Harry's direction and then followed his sister's steps.

Harry rubbed his arm and began the slow trek back to his locker. Of course the previous scene bothered him but he was adamant about not letting it get to him. Who was he, even if he was her brother, to tell Harry what to do anyway? Not that he was interested in her in that way, at least he thought so but still, he liked her as a friend and had begun to treasure their friendship. Cho was one who always listened attentively to what he had to say and always came with good responses no matter small the problem in question.

By the time he'd gotten to club practice he had already pushed Wufei out of his mind and buried himself in concentration and sweat.

* * *

The next couple of days Harry had started to notice a slim change with Duo. The teen acted strangely and almost all the time seemed to be distracted by something. What got to Harry though was when on Thursday he caught the braided teen spying on him from around the corner a bit away from his locker.

Harry didn't know how to react exactly to this since the teen would always disappear when they got eye contact or when Harry moved in his direction. At first Harry thought it had something to do with Wufei telling the others not to talk to him or something but Quatre would still say hi when they met in the corridors so he ruled that one out. Heero was being his usual self, although he seemed a little bit tense at times when Harry was in the vicinity.

As Friday rolled up, Harry had really starting to annoy himself at Duo's evasive maneuvers, until during lunch break the teen abruptly sat down in front him. The boy had an unreadable expression on his face and Harry eyed the other warily.

Duo's poker face broke.

"Please join the soccer team Harry!" He pleaded and threw himself across the table, hands clasped together in front of him.

Harry choked on his food and gladly accepted the glass of water Duo handed him. After he'd gotten his breathing functioning properly again, he opened his eyes and looked down into wide open and deep violet.

The few tables around them that had also been initially startled at the shout eventually went back to their own devices. Duo blinked a few times innocently at him and Harry squirmed in his seat.

"I don't-" He began but was cut off by Duo.

"I've already got it all worked it!" The other said.

"Worked out?" Harry questioned uncertainly.

Duo unclasped his hands and leaned back somewhat, which Harry was grateful for.

"Yes! You see, the game dates from tennis to soccer are all different. Most tennis games are played on Saturdays and soccer games on Sundays. I checked, so there would be no problem of them ever clashing."

"But I told you I haven't played for years." Harry persisted.

"You could always join in on a practice or two, or I could train with your after club activities." Duo sent him doleful eyes. "Please Harry, there's no way we've ever reach state champion ship if we don't have a good defense."

Harry couldn't argue with that statement, but still… did they have to have him. As if reading his thoughts Duo reassured him again.

"We need you! Wufei can't handle shoots like you do and we need him on the midfield anyways, not it in the goal trying to be a goalie." Duo shook his head.

Harry thought it was lucky Wufei wasn't here to hear this since he had a fairly good idea that the Asian teen wouldn't take this lying down from Duo.

"So, the reason why you've been following me these last few days…?" Harry asked.

Duo blinked.

"You noticed?" He whispered.

"Sort of hard not to." Harry nodded.

"Ah, well, at first I was trying to think of a way to convince you."

"So you followed me around school?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

Duo waved his hand.

"But, then I thought some researching would help me persuade you and then I found out the different days the games were played on. It's brilliant!"

"If you say so…"

"So you'll join?"

"Duo, I don't think I have the time for it."

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch break.

"Come on, go with me for now and meet me at the end of school and club at the soccer field. I'll be waiting for you!" He pushed himself off the seat in one fluid motion.

Harry didn't have a chance to protest before the boy was soon out of earshot. He slumped into his seat. Again he'd been dragged into Duo's pace. Somehow he would have to explain to the other teen that he couldn't play soccer, even if he wanted to, and what would Sirius say to that? Definitively a 'no no' and then he'd get a lecture on his determination and ambition to becoming a professional player. Getting sidetracked with other things did not help to fulfill that goal.

He'd just have to tell Duo that when he met up with him again.

Yeah, no problem.

* * *

During tennis practice Harry plunged into it with all he got. The senior he was playing against at first didn't stand a chance. Harry was adjusting the strings to his racket when Zechs told him to do a few laps around the courts with some of the other seniors so that the younger members would some court time.

Harry took up position besides Chris as they jogged outside of the fences encasing the courts. He watched Zechs giving some adjustments to boy's backhand before Chris spoke up beside him.

"You know that guy you've been hanging around with, Duo. I heard from one of the other seniors that he was here yesterday wanting to talk with Zechs. I thought he was part of the soccer team though?" Chris glanced at him.

Harry fumbled with his pace for a few seconds. Had Duo even been to talk to Zechs? The teen's dedication to his team sure seemed to be strong.

"Duo was?"

"Yeah, dunno why though." Chris said with a small shrug.

They came to a stop eventually and began their stretches. Zechs called it a day and asked to talk to Harry for a few minutes. At first Harry immediately thought it had to be about Duo, though he wouldn't know why the couch would ask him about the other teen. If Duo hadn't mentioned him or seen them together in school that is, he thought.

However what Zechs wanted to talk about were something else completely, well sort of. He'd wanted to talk with Harry about taking the first singles match for the first preseason game against Kilroy High School.

He didn't have any objections to that, maybe just a bit nervous but excited all the same and he felt his pride swell at the coach's statement and faith in him.

Harry arrived back to the dressing rooms just when the majority of the guys had gotten out of the showers. Chris was impressed when he heard the news from Harry and had proudly announced it the whole room. They guys gave him their wishes of luck.

By the time Harry had gotten showered and dressed the room had been completely cleared out and he was alone as he turned off the light and closed the door. Zechs seemed to have left for the day too leaving the courts deserted.

* * *

He walked along the sideline of the grass covered field and he looked around to see Duo nowhere. Maybe the teen had changed his mind, he thought and dumped his bag to lean against the metal railing.

Soft footfalls had his attention drawn to behind him and he turned his head. Standing a few yards away was Heero with an equally surprised expression. He'd obviously not expected to meet Harry here of all places.

The Asian teen still had his training gear on, soccer shoes and leg protectors along with black shorts and a white t-shirt. He didn't say anything and the silence started to get to the raven haired teen just as Duo came running up behind Heero. He had a soccer ball under one arm, a small bag in the other and a huge grin plastered across his face.

"You're here!" He said exuberantly.

He walked past Heero who after a few seconds followed more carefully. Coming up to Harry Duo dropped the ball onto the field and dug into the small bag, fishing up a pair of soccer shoes, socks, protectors and gloves.

"Wouldn't want you getting hurt, right?" He said lightly and dumped it all unceremoniously into Harry's arms.

"Come on, come on." He urged when Harry remained unmoving.

The British teen dropped the things onto the ground and sat down to remove his regular shoes. The soccer shoes fit surprisingly well and Duo made a noise of satisfaction at this. It felt odd wearing the gear again since so many years but Harry couldn't help the smile on his face when he tried them out.

"Right, we'll start out with some simple straight shoots at first before we get started on the trickier ones." Duo announced and led the way to the right hand goal cage.

Despite his earlier decision Harry felt the excitement growing and slipped the gloves onto his hands.

He managed to catch first two shots from Duo but missed the third, still Duo smiled when Harry proceeded to catch the following six shots. He was still becoming accustomed to the feeling of the tight leg protectors when he became aware of Heero standing to the side watching them. He wondered for what purpose Heero was there in the first place but strangely glad at the same time.

"Heero, why don't you try some shots?" Duo called to his friend and Harry felt his nervousness suddenly grow.

He absentmindedly wiped the gloves across his beige shorts in a show of an old habit he'd had from when he was younger and in the local soccer team.

Duo's shots he'd figured out were wild but not too hard to decide where they would end up and he was curious to see the difference between Duo's and Heero's shots.

Heero sent him a calculating look that told Harry that he was 'in the game' so to speak and felt somewhat happy that the teen would take this seriously enough.

However Harry was amazed at the speed and angle Heero added to the ball and it went easily into the upper left corner. Harry looked at the ball with stunned silence. Heero didn't make a comment as he walked up to the goal and picked up the ball. He weighted it in his hands before thrusting it into Harry's chest.

"You need to bend your knees more and you're too stiff." The raven haired boy looked up surprised. Dark cobalt blue eyes clashed with startled emerald. "Don't wait for the ball. _You_ need to anticipate where it's going."

"Okay." Harry replied dimly.

His attention was drawn away from the Asian teen when he heard Duo coming up to them and the braided teen slung an arm around Harry.

"Don't mind that last one Harry, Heero's in a league of his own and a candidate for the scholarship. So am I but I'll have to give it to him. He knows how to kick a ball." Duo chuckled and then the teen's expression sobered. "That's also why we're going to the states championship this year for sure."

This was a first for Harry seeing this side of Duo. He was reminded with how much this must mean to Duo and how frustrated the teen must have been with the team's lack of a goalkeeper.

Harry chewed on his lip.

"Maybe…" He started, looking at them both and lingering a bit on Heero before righting himself up. "Maybe I could help you out-"

His last words were muffled when Duo pulled him into an energetic hug, jumping up and down.

"You won't regret this!" He said when he finally let go of the nearly smothered teen.

"I hope so." Harry said.

"And great timing." Duo continued. "'Cause the first game is on Sunday."

"This Sunday?" Harry replied incrediously. "You expect me to play a game this Sunday?"

"It'll be fine." Duo waved off the concerns. "I and Heero'll whip you right back into action before the big game."

Harry looked at him doubtfully. They couldn't possibly expect him to do that. How in the name of all living did they expect him to take part in a game on such short notice? He who hadn't played a game of soccer since he was twelve?

"You free this Saturday?" Duo asked.

"I have morning practice but after that I'm free." Harry replied.

"Your club has practice on Saturdays?" Duo questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"No, with my god father." Harry corrected.

"So, if I say one o'clock here on Saturday would you be able to make it?"

"I think so."

He could probably think of some excuse to give Sirius before tomorrow.

Harry handed back the ball to Duo and they returned for their bags. When Harry offered the gear back to the long haired teen he just shook his head.

"You can keep them for now. I don't think you have your own right?"

Harry shook his head negative.

"Thanks."

"No problem man. More like I should thank you." He flashed him a large smile.

Harry smiled but then faltered.

"What time is it?"

Duo fished out a wristwatch out of his bag.

"It's a bit after six." He managed to say before Harry groaned. "What?"

"I'm late for practice with Sirius. He's going to kill me." Harry moaned miserably.

Heero quirked an eyebrow.

"It can't be that bad." Duo said jokingly. Harry gave him a flat look. "It is that bad."

"You don't know Sirius." Harry said. "He takes practice to a whole new level. I better get going before I end up with too much extra practice."

Harry shoved the rest of the things into his bag and swung it into his shoulder. Running along the field he took a right turn by the bleachers and turned in the direction of the school.

"I'll see you on Saturday then!" Duo shouted after him.

Harry waved a hand in the air.

The two watched the raven haired teen disappear out if sight before collecting their own things.

"You sure about this?" Heero asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" He retorted.

"His lack of experience?"

"It can be worked around. He's got good reflexes, you saw him didn't you?"

"Maybe, but I still think he's not up to it."

"You'd rather have Wufei as the goalie then?" Duo sent a meaningful look in the cobalt eyed teen's direction.

Heero kept quiet and that was answer enough for Duo.

**AN: **It's nearly 1 AM as I finish this chapter and I'm going right to bed after posting it. I'll probably fall asleep the second my head touches the pillow as I keep blinking and rubbing my eyes as I write this. So, good night everyone. :yawns: /Lin


	6. Chapter Five A Glimpse Of The Past

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and god father are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **Sorry for the long, _loooong_, wait, but here it is finally. Another chapter of SC. Hope you like it. /Lin

Second Chances

Chapter 5

* * *

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me."

Dudley Field Malone

* * *

Harry slumped, exhausted, across his bed and groaned from both delight and fatigue. Sirius had made him do several extra push-ups and sit-ups than his usual workout plan, under the sweltering sun no less for being late. He was almost sure his pale British skin was going to get a permanent sunburn from being forced to do the exercises without a shielding shirt. He'd remember to use sun block the next time.

He pushed himself around to lie on his back. He took a few deep breaths as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the wrist sweatband. Perhaps resting his sweaty body on the clean bed linens wasn't such a good idea, but it was too late now. He would rest for a few minutes more before taking his shower and eating dinner. Emerald eyes switched to the alarm clock on his nightstand, the numbers telling him it was a little bit after half past eight. Usually his practice would end at eight.

After resting Harry showered and got dressed in cotton sweatpants accompanied with a simple t-shirt. As he came down the stairs his nose caught something burnt and entering the kitchen he saw Sirius grudgingly dousing a hot and steaming skillet in the sink. He sat down at the table just as Sirius turned off the faucet. From beside the stove the man grabbed a plate and a bowl which he put down on the table. Looking at the dishes Harry had to assume that Sirius had been trying to fry some pieces of meat (they were rather black though) and some mixture he guessed were supposed to be mashed potatoes. Well, at least the man had tried right?

The man fetched another smaller bowl and Harry was happy to see that the fresh vegetables seemed to be mostly unharmed. Although, the cut sizes were of a wide range of variety.

"I and the new stove don't get along very much." Sirius stated with thoughtful eye on the food he had prepared.

"I think cooking in general don't get along with you." Harry parried.

"Don't make me order you another fifty." Sirius warned, pointing a finger in the teen's direction and Harry shut his mouth.

Sirius had to cook this time when he had extended Harry's practice. Usually Harry was the one who cooked for them for obvious reasons as shown here before them.

Having scraped off the burnt surface on the meat it was edible enough, though dry, the potatoes were okay, despite their appearance but a bit too salty, and you couldn't do much damage to the vegetables in the first place. Altogether, he was impressed. Counting every time Sirius had cooked this had to be the most successful one of them all and that was saying something.

"Why were you late today?" His god father threw him a short look out of the corner of his eye as he inspected the meat and then took a cautious bite out of it. Seconds later he hummed appreciatively and dug in, clearly surprised by the success of his own cooking.

Harry winced inwardly; he had been hoping Sirius wouldn't ask him that, or at least forget about it given enough time.

"I forgot the time when I was with some friends." He said, trying to sound casual.

It wasn't a lie, technically that is, but why then did he feel this light twinge in the pit of his stomach?

"Friends? That's nice to hear Harry!" Sirius smiled, face lighting up. "But try and not be late the next time, alright? We have to think about keeping up your practice." He continued with a semi stern voice.

"Yes, I'll do that." Harry replied and couldn't help breathing a small inner sigh of relief.

Finished eating Harry offered to wash the dishes, leaving Sirius to slouch in front of the TV, and then went up to work on his homework before going to bed.

* * *

Harry threw his bag on the bed and watched it bounce lightly before settling down. Eyes kept staring at it. He still hadn't figured out what excuse he was going to tell Sirius. He certainly had a problem. He'd sort of (or rather made into) promised Duo that he would help the soccer club, but he also had a old and long standing promise with Sirius that he would give his all with tennis. Somehow he didn't think Sirius would be very happy hearing about him offering to help the soccer club, however noble the gesture, since it was the man that had pulled him out of soccer to begin with to be able to focus on tennis. His devotion would be in question, but Harry could do both things. How hard could it be?

He would have to keep it a secret from his god father though; there was no other way around it. He wasn't sure Sirius would understand. And what Sirius didn't know wouldn't hurt him now would it? Harry was just going to help Duo for a little while until they found a proper goalkeeper to join the club. He was sure it wouldn't take too long. They would surely replace him with someone better in no time, so why couldn't he have some fun with it while it lasted?

Sirius was sitting in the leather couch in front of the TV again in the living room when Harry found him. The man clicked between the channels listlessly in search of something worth watching, while silently contemplating whether he should take a trip into town. He stopped on a news channel shortly to hear the news and weather report.

"Sirius?"

"Yes?" Sirius kept his eyes on the TV, clicking once when he tired of the gloomy news and settled down for some old classic movie.

"I, was just wondering if it was alright for me to go and meet some friends at school, today."

"Sure, we're done with practice today and as long as you don't forget your homework, I see no problem." The man turned around from the TV to look at Harry. "So how long will you be gone?"

"I was supposed to meet them at one o'clock…they didn't tell me how long it would take though."

"Well, call me if it becomes any later than six alright?" Sirius replied and then grinned mischievously. "Stay out of trouble and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Sure. Not like that's going to be a problem." Harry mumbled the last part.

"What are going to do at the school anyway?" The man asked offhandedly, switching back to the TV. "Don't young people go to the, 'mall' or something around here rather than school on the weekends?"

"Uh…I don't know." Harry hesitated, wracking his brain for an answer. "Just hang around…I suppose." He tried.

"Okay." Sirius cracked a laughter when the male character fell on his face when he was about to propose to the female protagonist.

"I should be going then." He said and turned to leave.

"Good, good…" Sirius repeated absentmindedly and laughed again when the man once more tripped on the carpet and knocked a flower vase to the floor.

That was easy enough, Harry thought a bit surprised, somehow having expected a stronger opposition. There was no way his parents would ever have allowed him to go out alone like this. He was surprised really, that it had been that easy but he wasn't about to complain about it either.

He went out into the hall and quickly grabbed his backpack where he'd left it earlier. Harry clutched his hand on the doorknob, opened the door and slipped out while trying to hide his loaded backpack. He didn't want for Sirius to see it and start asking questions why he would need it. And he most definitively didn't need the man to see the content of said backpack.

Retrieving his bike from the garage he jumped on and veered out of the driveway onto the street. So far so good, he thought, feeling a little giddy about his, in Harry's opinion, great accomplishment in tricking Sirius.

* * *

He parked his bike at the school entrance and was in the process of locking it when another bike's brakes screeched to a halt behind him.

"Hey Harry! Great to see you here!" Duo said, getting off and pushing his bike into the stand next to his.

"Hi Duo." Harry smiled.

He waited patiently for the other teen to lock his bike and unload his bag. Duo seemed high in spirits like always. The school was pretty much abandoned except for the two of them, he noticed, as he let his eyes stray over the vicinity.

"You're feeling ready to get some serious work and sweat going?"Duo asked him, coming up sideways with him and they started walking in the direction of the fields.

"I guess…" Harry answered.

"No no," Duo shook his head at his response, interrupting him. "Put some energy and feeling into it! 'Yes, I am!'" The teen near shouted, thrusting an arm into the air.

"I'll do the best I can." Harry amended with another smile.

Duo's arm lowered, pursing his lips.

"We'll do something about that attitude later, but for now let's focus on getting you used to being in the goal again." He said and stepped up a pace, Harry hurrying along after him.

They reached the fields, Duo swinging himself over the railing with practiced ease and Harry choosing to duck under them. Straightening up again he was surprised to see that the school hadn't been as abandoned has he had initially thought.

Bouncing a ball repeatedly from first one foot to the other was Heero, as he practiced his volley coordination. Harry couldn't help but to be impressed by the small show of technique, the teen seemingly having perfect control over the ball as he switched from low to high volleys in quick succession.

"Nice of you to come Heero!" Duo called out to his friend.

Heero kicked the ball once more before deftly catching it in-between his hands. He nodded once at Duo before turning to Harry, eyes meeting briefly, and then inclining his head slightly as in greeting.

Heero was here too? He'd thought it would be only him and Duo.

"Well, since everyone's here already, let's get on with it okay?" Duo said, deposing his bag next to another black one that had to be Heero's.

"I'll just get changed then." Harry said, dropping down on the ground along with his bag, as he began fishing out the equipment he'd gotten to borrow from Duo earlier.

"Right, we'll start some light running as warm up then. Jump right in when you're done changing Harry."Duo said, then turning back to Heero. "You warmed up yet Heero?" He asked.

"Just about finished." Heero answered, before starting up his volleying again.

"Would you mind setting up the goal after you're done?"

Heero nodded an affirmative to the request, eyes on the ball, after which the braided teen took off running in a light pace.

Harry managed to get the soccer shoes and protectors on quickly enough and was soon seen joining Duo jogging around the field. He dimly noted at one time Heero's discreet eyes on him, said teen in the process of moving one of the goals, as he passed another corner and coming into his third lap around the field.

He came to a stop where Duo had paused to do some stretches, sitting down to do the same. Meanwhile Heero had pushed one of the goals onto the field from where they usually stood on the sidelines when the fields weren't being used. It also made it easier for the caretaker to see over the grass properly.

Again he wondered why Heero was here, he'd thought it would only be him and Duo but the teen obviously must have asked Heero to come along too, he supposed. He had been there when Duo asked Harry about it after all. But why would Heero take precious time off to help Harry, time he could spend on his own practice, and wouldn't Duo be enough?

Fastening the gloves onto his hands, Harry occupied himself with making sure they were tight enough to stay in place, but not too tight for comfort. He was curious about Heero. The mostly silent teen was miles away from the outspoken Duo, and he had a way about himself, somehow keeping others from getting too close to him. Keeping them at a certain distance, present but not quite, caught in his own little bubble surveying the world around him. Who was he as a person really?

It made Harry frown, when it suddenly reminded himself of Chris and Danny, as he was trying so hard to fit in; talking and laughing at jokes that he didn't really think was that funny. But what did he know? Having grown up with no friends to talk about and home tutored without a chance to make any. Maybe it was something wrong with him? What did Harry know about what friends were and making them anyway? He was just a rich boy…

"Harry! Come on, that's enough with stretches!" Duo shouted from where he now stood besides Heero, impatiently waiting for the raven haired teen.

"Coming." He called back, getting to his feet.

They spent a good three hours practicing, well Harry mostly. He'd been drilled by both Duo and Heero, the pair switching between shooting and giving him coaching and advice from the sideline. Things like where his hands should be, how to look for signs in the player's posture where the ball would go and his stance just to give a few examples. He'd gotten frustrated on more than a few occasions; while he got one thing right, he always seemed to be doing another wrong. Which, Heero was quick to point out to him, in his very direct and blunt way. Harry knew he was right, in turn making him further frustrated, but that didn't mean the words hadn't stung. He wanted to do good, show them he could still play well. He wanted to show Heero and make him say something positive.

He also became to understand why the two teens were so good at the sport, and no wonder, they reminded him much of himself in that respect. Both proved to be hard working and he respected them for that. That still didn't mean he enjoyed being ordered and pushed around though, he got plenty enough of that from Sirius, but he'd been the one to agree to this, no matter how persuasive Duo had been. It was fun all the same though, he could put up with it as long as it continued to be that way.

It was when the time got close to a quarter passed five that Duo called them to a stop. Harry helped Heero push the goal back to where it'd been before, Duo picking up the ball and going over to their bags.

"You're getting better." Heero surprised him by saying all of a sudden, as they swung out the wheels under the metal frame.

"Thanks." Harry said, smiling and feeling happy at the other's words.

"Don't get cocky though. You're nowhere near the level of a high-schooler." The teen was quick to shoot him down.

Well, that for sure put a damper on his mood and his smile was replaced with a glum frown. No matter it was true, but he didn't have to come right out and say it like that, Harry thought. What was his problem anyway? Would it really hurt him that much too, to just give him a compliment and leave it at that?

They finished putting the goal away in silence, changing out of their gear and putting them back into their bags that Duo brought over for them.

"Can I use your club's showers?" Harry asked, tugging at his soaked shirt that was clinging uncomfortably to his frame while shielding his eyes from the overhead sun.

"They're locked on the weekends when there are no matches." Duo replied. "We're going over to Heero's house for that."

Harry frowned. Heero's house?

He cast a furtive glance at the Asian teen that was busy with packing down his soccer shoes. Uncertainty found its way onto Harry's features. He'd never been to another person's house, only his grandparents, and now he was going to _Heero's_ house.

"That's okay with you, right?" Duo asked, apparently noticing his lack of response.

Harry lingered on his reply.

"Yeah… sure. If, that's okay with you?" He asked, not sure if he was seeking permission from Heero or giving the other a way out.

"Wouldn't have said it if it wasn't, right Heero?"

Heero hummed noncommittally.

* * *

Harry felt awkward as he followed the two back to Harry's and Duo's bikes, Heero waiting for them and then leading the way back to his house. It wasn't that far from the school it would seem, taking only under ten minutes or so of walking, explaining Heero's lack of a bike. Harry stayed out of the talk, Duo having a mostly one way conversation with Heero, who offered short responses every now and then.

Heero lived in a semi-modern house. It could be compared in size to the house Harry and Sirius was living in at the moment, except that theirs was a third larger and had all those extra facilities. Conservative was one word for it and not one you normally would threw a second glance. Harry could just imagine his mom gasping at the lack of style and design, immediately demanding to make it her next project.

"Parent's not home?" Duo observed, but it came out more like a statement, as Heero put his key in the front door's lock.

"Work." Heero said in way of explanation and Duo nodded.

'On a Saturday afternoon?' Harry thought quietly to himself. Even if his parents did work on some weekends as well, they usually made it a point of doing so at home, enabling them to still stay close to their son.

Chugging of his shoes with his feet in one hurried motion, Duo dumped his bag on the ground before taking a leaping step and rushing up the stairs to the second floor.

"Dibs on the shower!" He shouted over his shoulder.

Heero shook his head.

"He always does that."

It took Harry a moment to realize that he'd been left alone with Heero, in the teen's house, and that he had absolutely no idea what to do with himself. He couldn't very well stay at the front door but at the same time he couldn't just walk right in without an invitation. The situation didn't get any better when he couldn't bring himself to say anything as well.

It was Heero that eventually broke the silence, removing his shoes and exchanging them for a pair of slippers. He cast a glance over his back at the still not moving British teen, observing him for what felt like minutes but which only lasted a mere few seconds.

"Want something to drink? It'll take Duo a while." He said, apparently not waiting for the other boy to follow him as he turned to walk away.

Harry was thirsty; playing for over several hours under a sweltering sun would leave your throat completely parched.

Heero ventured further into the house, Harry clumsily removing his shoes and bag before trailing after him. He took in the sparse furniture here and there. Not much to comment on, not many colors if any at all. On a small drawer, though, in the hall they passed there was an inconspicuous photo of a couple, an Asian male standing beside a dark haired woman.

Harry stopped at the sight, curiously bending down to get a closer look. She had the same shade of eyes as Heero he noticed at once. Must be his parents, Harry concluded. He found it odd though, how there seemed to be a small distance between the two, even though they stood close together, the woman's hands were clutched together in front of her and the man kept his behind his back, a serious expression etched deeply into his features. Although the woman had a very soft and gentle smile that reminded him of his own mother.

His eyes traveled to the other lone photo standing next to the other. This one was of a little boy of six years or so, maybe eight at the most, dressed in a black suit much like the one the father wore in the first photo. What caught his interest though was the radiant smile the boy had, his eyes alight as they focused on something to the right of the cameraman. Almost like he was about to burst into laughter any second…

In the next a hand reached out and near slammed the front of the photo frame down on the wood. The sudden motion made Harry jump back and his eyes met those of Heero who stared, no glared, at him. Harry's throat got even dryer than it had been before and he realized he must have done something really wrong. Was there something special about that photo?

"That's private." Heero said, his voice weirdly lacking of any emotion despite the force in his eyes. There was no trace of the little boy in the photo in the person standing before Harry except for the physical features.

Not being able to bear that glare any longer, Harry's eyes fled to the side and shifted to staring at the floor.

"Sorry." Harry replied quickly, feeling smaller under the weight of Heero's gaze.

There was a shuffle of feet, and then Heero was walking away leaving Harry standing alone in the hallway. He noticed now how his heart was hammering away inside his chest, his shoulders sagging as he exhaled.

That had scared him a little. Scared and surprised by the abrupt action and it left him unable to follow Heero at first. Should he stay or would Heero want him to leave now? He must have made Heero angry but how, by looking at a mere picture? Harry thought it was a nice photo. Nothing especially wrong with it; was he embarrassed about Harry seeing him as a child perhaps?

Maybe he better leave, he felt like he'd stepped over an invisible boundary, or more like intruded. What was the way back again to school? They'd taken the opposite direction, from the one Harry usually took so… Wait, did they take a left at that crossroad, or would that be right now when going back? It was no use, he couldn't remember. From school to Harry's house the way was mostly just following one long road, taking a right and left and then arrival. However, going to Heero's home was filled with turns and corners that he hadn't really paid any attention to, and which he started regretting now.

Despite his struggling insecurity he slowly tripped along the small hallway, casting a last glance at the downturned photo frame, before coming to stand in the kitchen opening. Heero had his back to him, busying himself with removing some glasses from an overhead cabinet. Harry stopped there, carefully observing the other youth as the boy fetched a pitcher from the fridge and deposed his load on the bench separating the dining area from the rest of the kitchen.

Heero's eyes never strayed away in Harry's direction, seemingly unaware or ignoring the other's presence Harry weren't sure off, but it was probably the latter.

It might have been a few minutes, or even up to ten, without any noticeable changes made between the two. Again Harry didn't know what to do with himself; he might just as well have been part of the furniture for all the non-existent attention he was getting from Heero. At the same time he didn't know if he should be relieved or frustrated by that. What slightly unnerved him now was the fact how Heero just stood there, looking down at the empty glasses, and the few droplets of fluid on the surface forming there from the heat permeating the air. Eyes clouded and face devoid of any emotion.

Heero moved again then, disrupting the stillness, reaching out for the pitcher and poured the contents, juice of some sorts, into two of the glasses. Shoving the glass across the bench he, without looking up even once, spoke lowly.

"Drink."

Harry carefully made his way closer, closing the distance and then grasping the glass between his fingers. The coolness of the drink tingled in his fingertips and he soundlessly took a small sip, mindful of how Heero did the same.

After that the silence had been tense, to such a degree he had been able to faintly hear the sound of a shower running in the background. They didn't engage in any further talking and when Duo was finished Harry was offered to use the shower next. Meanwhile he was in the bathroom Duo had apparently gone home, leaving him alone in a house with a guy he guessed had to be angry with him with no way of getting home without help. He now wished Duo would have said something about leaving earlier without him so that he could've asked the braided teen to wait for him, but it was too late now. Sure, he could call Sirius to fetch him but he didn't trust the other teen to not let anything slip out about their activities and surely Sirius would start asking question about why he had his backpack with him, filled with soccer equipment, and why his hair was all wet.

The house was eerily silent now again with the rambunctious long haired teen gone and Heero having gone to take a shower himself. He wasn't brave enough to take Heero's absence as an opportunity to check in the rest of house, he felt he'd intruded enough as it is. He subjected himself to waiting near the front door, sitting down to lean against the wall there, knees to his chest, just by his backpack and where the floor dropped a step separating the rest of house from the front entrance.

Resting his forehead against the soft cotton of the cargo shorts he had on, he let his eyelids fall shut.

"What are you still doing here?"

Harry's head shot up, Heero was standing at the last step of the staircase, a towel hung over his head while a few tendrils of wet hair were sticking out from beneath the soft fabric. He was barefoot, wearing simple shorts and a white t-shirt that clung to his damp chest and shoulders.

Harry swiveled his head away from the sight of the newly showered teen, now feeling strangely weird for some reason rather than worried about Heero's anger.

"I can't remember the way home." Harry mumbled embarrassedly.

"Oh." Heero said after a while, sounding surprised. "I thought…" He cut himself off, taking the last step down and then he seemed to be hesitating.

"I'll, take you back to the school." He finally said, catching Harry off guard at the unexpected offer.

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Harry replied, but made no move to stand up. He scrunched his eyebrows together. "Listen, I'm sorry about before, didn't know I was doing something wrong, I promise I won't do it again."

Heero frowned lightly, again hesitating before speaking.

"No, I'm sorry for reacting like that. That, it's private; I just don't want people seeing it."

"Okay."

Heero turned around, his bare feet thudding lightly across the floor boards. He was back within a few minutes, hair dryer and towel gone. He soundlessly stepped past Harry and put on his shoes. The British teen stood up, grasping his pack with one hand and following the Asian teen when the other held the door open for him before locking it behind them.

He secured his pack to the bike, leading it out of the driveway where Heero stood waiting for him. The slightly taller teen kept a few steps ahead of the other while leading the way. They stayed silent the whole way back, neither offering up a start to a conversation. Finally at the school Heero stopped before saying.

"The bus departs at noon. Don't be late."

The teen sent him a final small nod before turning around again, leaving Harry alone watching the slowly retreating back of the boy.

He got back home just a bit after six, quickly slipping past Sirius offering a halfhearted reply to the man's called greeting before secluding himself in his room. He absentmindedly emptied the bag of its contents, his thoughts on the photo of a small Heero and the boy's reaction to him having seen it. He couldn't get it out if his head. It bothered him and he wanted to know why it did so.

Later he went down to start on the dinner, mind still on the Asian teen trying to figure the other one out. He managed to get Sirius' permission to stay out with his friends again the next day without too much trouble that had him thinking the god father was almost being too lenient with him going away for almost the whole day. Although he was the last person to complain about that and it made it easier keeping his extra activities a secret from the man, you know?

* * *

While asking for permission had been easy enough, actually leaving the house the next morning without Sirius seeing his entire luggage proved to be more difficult. He'd decided on bringing some sandwiches and drinks along in case they were gone for a longer time. The other boys had failed to mention whether how far away the school in question they were playing against was located, or for how long they possibly might be gone. He knew enough, and remembered, that he would need some extra nutrients in-between game play to stay focused. An even matched tennis game could go on for hours, and while soccer games used fixed time perimeters, excluding stoppage or injury time, or penalties for that matter, they could go on for over an hour and three quarters at the least.

"Having a good time are you Harry?" Sirius asked Harry just as he was in the process of swallowing another piece of his scrambled eggs mixed with vegetables.

"Uh, yes, I am." Harry said and discreetly used his foot to shove the small bag with the sandwiches he'd prepared earlier further beneath the table out of the man's line of sight.

Sirius leaned against the kitchen top, coffee mug in hand.

"Good to hear. I'd hate it for me to have to deliver bad news to your mother. Can't seem to get anything past her even while on the phone." The older male half mumbled to himself.

Harry smiled shrewdly. Didn't he know it.

"I'm off then." Harry said, taking the last bite and pushing the plate away from him. He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Look at the time, Sirius, could you take the dishes this time for me? I don't want to be running late."

The man raised an eyebrow at his nephew's speech.

"Oh, alright, don't want to keep your friends waiting for too long. Just don't expect this service every time." His god father joked.

"Thanks Sirius."

The plate was picked up by Sirius, turning his back to the teen, and in the meantime Harry sneaked a hand under the table, retrieving the small package and quickly went to stuff it into his big one he'd hid under the staircase in the hall. He threw a short look to see that the coast was clear before pulling out the bag and hurrying past the kitchen, getting his shoes on and hollering a last good bye before closing the door behind him.

At the school entrance there was a black and white bus waiting with a smaller crowd just outside of it. He immediately recognized one group of people standing a bit to the side. Having parked his bike he made his way over to them and waited for them to notice him, which didn't take long.

"Harry! So happy to see you man!" Duo exuded and flung an arm around the British teen's shoulders, ushering him closer to the others.

"Hi again." Harry said, while righting the bag that had slipped a bit at the other's rough movement.

"Are you sure you're okay with this, Harry?" Quatre asked while smiling. "It's not too late to say no and we won't hold it against you. I heard from Duo that you also have extra tennis practice, outside of the club's, don't you?"

"No, it's fine. I'm completely free on Sundays anyway."

Duo rolled his eyes.

"Stop your worrying Quat. Just accept the help for once and say thank you."

Quatre shook his head good-naturedly but left it at that.

Harry noticed in the corner of his eye the annoyed stare he was getting from Wufei, but ignored it for the sake of observing the other Asian teen standing next to him having a small conversation with the tallest of the bunch, Trowa.

He let himself be ushered by Duo again when the elderly soccer coach called out for all of them to board the bus. He sat down in the back by a window with the braided teen at his side, Heero and Trowa sitting opposite to them in the other line and Wufei and Quatre in the seats in front of them. Almost right away he was pulled into a conversation concerning today's game strategy and tactics, leaving him to only catch a few glimpses of the cobalt eyed teen every now and then during the bus ride.

At one point in time the coach had strolled down the aisle and had Duo introduce Harry to him, while also thanking the teen for the help he was giving them for acting as their stand-in goalkeeper. When the coach heard from Duo that they were going through the tactics he joined them and soon Harry was kept busy trying to remember everything they were telling him. The talk and tips he was given was meant to help him but Harry just felt his nervousness building the closer Duo said they were getting to their destination. He began wondering if he really was up to this. This wasn't like tennis and just because he was good a swinging a racket at a ball didn't mean would be as good as catching a ball, no matter that it was larger.

Heero's words from earlier popped into his head, '_don't get cocky_'. Had he been getting cocky? Was he too confident in his skills or had Duo's praise gotten to his head? But it would all work out wouldn't it? It couldn't be that hard catching a ball with your hands, right? It was just another sport just like tennis; just do his best, and it would be alright, nothing more to it, so keep your cool.

Yeah, it would all be alright.

Wouldn't it?

**AN:** I'm finally getting more into the story itself and the beginnings of Harry's and Heero's starting friendship that will hopefully lead into a more romantic relationship. I've realized that it won't be easy getting them there. Heero is way too stubborn to just fall head over heels in love, and with another guy to boot. Harry will have to work hard, same goes for Heero, if they will ever get to experience their first love. :shakes head:


	7. Chapter Six Reality's First Hit

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and godfather are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **So…I'm more than slightly aware that there's been ages(?) since I last updated this story. I can only blame real life. Despite it being summer and no school, I'm kept busy by my parents either giving me various jobs to do or dragging me to see a bunch of relatives, since I'm away most of the year in school. Doesn't sound that bad, perhaps, but consider the fact that I have over ten uncles and aunts and nearly thirty cousins who in turn has ten or so children that demand I play 'horsie' with them every time. I'm seriously too tired sometimes to write after a visit.

:coughs: Uh, enough complaining… Here's the next chapter of SC. Hope you'll like it.

Second Chances

Chapter 6

* * *

"We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision."

Gary Collins

* * *

Harry's eyes flicked between the passing cars in the opposite lane, the bright sun above glistening across the bonnets of the vehicles. The weather was optimal for match day and promising yet another day of high temperatures. It still bothered him, the heat here in California, in comparison to what he was used to although he'd told himself to 'just suck it up', as Duo so eloquently put it.

The soccer coach Mr. Nunez had, finally, left them just a few minutes earlier and were standing by Heero's and Wufei's seats now in the middle of another strategy discussion. Maybe Harry's lack of input deterred the man but the teen couldn't help it. The nervousness was, not exactly excruciating, but close enough in his opinion.

Harry squinted at a random reflex of light from the metal of another passing car and cast a careful look to his side.

"Uhm, Duo?"

"What?" The long haired teen replied absently.

"What school are we playing?" The dark haired teen asked, trying to not let his uncertainty show through the tone in his voice. .

The braided teen turned in his seat to face Harry, a surprised expression painted on his features.

"I haven't told you?"

"No." Harry shook his head.

Duo scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Livermore High School." He said simply.

Duo paused, eyeing Harry as the darker haired teen fiddled with his fingers and the hem of his shorts.

"You're nervous?" He asked, or rather stated, after a while.

Harry tried not to grimace.

"Well, I would be lying if I said no…"

Duo smiled comfortingly, well as comfortingly as his confident smile ended up being, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms behind his head.

"Don't think too much about it. Just go out there and do your best. We can't ask for more than that." He said matter-of-factly.

Harry hummed in response but the teen's reassurances didn't do much for his nervousness.

"Are they any good?"

Perhaps he was lucky enough they were going to play against a school that didn't play that well.

"Average." His neighbor shrugged.

Duo leaned over, patting twice on the boy's right shoulder and then, when he noticed how tense the boy was, leaned in.

"Have. Fun." He said, smile softer somehow.

Harry nodded lightly, trying to take it to heart to do just that but not quite succeeding in persuading his wavering self. He pushed down on it, telling himself that it was too late for second thoughts.

Country road gradually shifted into more populated roads and soon the bus entered Livermore. The other members of the soccer club one after the other began to impatiently shift in their seats, getting ready to get out of the bus.

It slowed down, turning and entering a parking lot where it parked right under the shade of some trees in the far left corner. Immediately the bus occupants began moving around in a flurry of excited calls of finally reaching their destination and pregame excitement letting itself be known clearly.

Harry followed the others out of the bus, waiting with Duo while the coach and driver opened up the baggage compartments. He accepted his bag and followed the tail of the group, trying not to think too much about his nerves that were starting to act up again. It would be all be alright, he told himself once more.

In the dressing room he was pulled from his inner thoughts when there was a light tap on his shoulder. He jumped slightly at the sudden contact, having been more preoccupied with his thoughts and nerves than he seemed to be aware of.

Heero was standing in front of him, dressed in the black and white colored uniform recognized as the school colors, holding out a black and grey uniform in his outstretched hand. The number one stood out, seemingly glaring at Harry, printed on the back of the long-sleeved shirt distinguishing itself from the design of the rest of the uniforms. The goalkeeper's attire.

"Here." Heero said simply in his usual tone.

"Thanks." He replied thickly, grasping the bundle of fabric and lowering his eyes to where they had been focused on the floor earlier.

Heero didn't comment on his apparent nervousness, only observed him for few seconds before going back to finish putting on his protectors, socks and shoes.

While Harry gingerly pulled the uniform on he was starting to think that this was really happening. He was actually going to participate in an actual and official game of soccer again. The thought instilled a little joy and helped to stave off some of the racing nerves enough to let him get dressed in time to follow the team out of the dressing room.

On their way to the field he caught sight of the bleachers that were half filled with students and, must be, parents that were waiting for the game to start. He became worried at first; almost expecting to see Sirius sitting among the rows of people before he berated himself on being silly for thinking the god father would actually be at the game. The relief soon turned sour though, when a small stab of guilt found its way into his thoughts. He couldn't help thinking that this was the first time he'd been doing something, big, without telling Sirius about it. But this wouldn't last forever. He would just be helping Duo and the others for a while. There really weren't any reason to tell Sirius of something that would just create more trouble if he did. Besides, it wasn't like he was neglecting his tennis practice or anything. Maybe doing something else besides just tennis practice would be good for him.

To prove his point he'd already made friends with Duo, and he'd at least talked with some of the others although Wufei didn't seem to like him that much. Maybe even less so after discovering Harry's friendship with Wufei's twin sister.

Someone in the crowd whistled and then it erupted into miniature cheers when their opponent stepped onto the field. It was natural though that the majority would be cheering for the home team. Mr. Nunez however diverted their attention from the other team's arrival with calling out to them to spread and start their warm-ups.

The group dispersed, some moving off to do short runs and others ball passing. Harry looked around himself, not knowing which group to join. His dilemma was solved when Trowa walked up to him, a ball clutched in his hands.

"Coach said to help you warm up." He supplied calmly, tilting his head to motion Harry to follow him.

The tall Latin-American juggled the ball as they moved to join two other boys standing by their side of the field's goal area. Their approach caught the attention of a sandy blonde boy, looking over the shoulder of a darker haired boy with apparent Latin origins which in turn turned around.

"Trowa." The dark haired boy acknowledged, then swiveled his eyes to Harry. "This the new recruit?" He asked.

"Yes." Trowa answered, switching to hold the ball under his left arm. "This is Miguel." He said.

"Hi." Miguel gave a small wave of the hand.

The sandy blond boy stepped forward and leaned on Miguel's shoulder with his arm.

"Name's Simon." He said.

"Harry."

"We three form the defense line." Trowa explained.

"It's our job to make sure no ball breaks through and assist you if it does." Simon said with a smile and righted himself. "I take care of the left side."

"Right." Miguel raised a hand. "And Trowa's got the middle. He gives out most directions." He explained further.

"Okay."

"I heard from Duo you haven't played since you were twelve?" Trowa asked for confirmation.

"Uh, that's right." Harry gripped the gloves in his right hand.

Miguel's and Simon's eyes widened in surprise.

"Whoa, you sure you'll be able to handle a game after such a long break?" Simon asked then and shot Miguel a look. "Duo must've been overly optimistic."

"Or desperate." Miguel said and uttered something low in Spanish.

Harry tried to ignore the other's comment, it didn't help though that he'd been having, and still are, the same thoughts.

"I'll try and do my best." He said all the same, frowning slightly, but his words seemed to do little to reassure the two.

"You two, go and warm up with the others." Trowa said to the two, said boys throwing the British teen a last look before walking off. He then turned to Harry. "Don't mind them."

"It's the truth though." Harry said, feeling less motivated now. "There's no way I'll be able to do any good in this game." He let out sullenly.

Trowa eyed him, watching the boy tug at the gloves again, the shorter teen's eyebrows knitted together in a worried frown. He shot the rest of the team a look before speaking up again.

"You can't be worse than Wufei." Trowa held the ball in his hand, watching through the corner of his eye to see he'd gotten the other boy's attention. "In the last practice game we had in this summer he let in more shots than he actually caught. "

"You're joking… right?" Harry asked.

"Caught three, let in five. Duo's been making fun of him ever since then, after he got over the initial disappointment of the loss that is." Trowa said as they came up to the goal. "Let's do some simple catch exercises first. Did you used to do any when you were still active?"

"Yeah, I remember doing those. One of the drills where you throw the ball and I'll try to catch it right?"

"Exactly."

The warm-up went smoother than Harry had thought it would go. Trowa was surprisingly a very good partner and calm in his demeanor as well as approach towards the British teen's insecurities. When time drew near for the game to start he offered some last words of encouragement before leaving Harry standing alone in the goal to take his place in the defense line. Further up the field Duo caught his attention and waved at Harry, which he answered with a hesitant smile and small wave back. The braided teen's actions caused Heero to send Harry a last look over his shoulder as well, just before the referee blew his whistle for the game to start.

He tensed immediately as he watched Duo lunge forward at the opponent, snatch the ball and send it back to the midfield where Heero received it. After that Harry was once again at awe at how easy Heero handled the ball from his position as left midfielder. It was easy to see that he was the playmaker of the team, acting as the anchor and centre point of the team's game play. Watching Wufei's responses to Heero's passes; Harry grudgingly had to give it to the teen. He weren't a bad player. In fact most players of the team were more than decent from what he could deduce from the small percentage calculation of ball control the team had in comparison to their opponent. He felt relieved at that. Perhaps that meant he wouldn't be engaging that much in the game and it'd be less opportunities for him to mess up.

As soon as that thought had entered his mind though, a player managed to feint his way through passed Quatre, Wufei on his heel but too far away to get at the ball. Miguel moved forward at a shout from Trowa to block and intercept the player, the boy avoiding the Spanish by passing the ball to a teammate that had followed through.

In the goal Harry followed the player and, tried to, ball with his eyes, attempting to determine where he would be aiming for if he, please no, got close enough to make a shot. Harry really wished he wouldn't. He moved to the left side of the goal, following the player and completely missing the former player that had moved closer on his other side. Too late he noticed him and Trowa's shouts for him to not leave the goal open.

The player made a pass that went over Simon's head, unable to block it, and landed at the feet of the other player that had gotten passed Quatre earlier. In the last moment Harry realized his mistake but it was too late to do anything but to watch the ball go past him and hitting the inside of the net.

The referee's whistle pierced the air and Harry stared with shock in his eyes at the ball that rolled across the grass before it stopped. He hadn't experienced this feeling in a long time. Not since the time before he'd begun to win all those tennis tournaments he'd entered as a child. In tennis he knew he was good for his age, even besting players three or four years older. He was confident in his skills as a _tennis _player, but he was starting to _truly_ realize the gap in skills caused by five years lack of practice. Something he should have realized from the start would be impossible to make up for with two simple practices.

What had he been thinking?

A hand landed on his shoulder causing him to jerk. Trowa's green eyes looked down into his.

"You okay?" He asked, hand not leaving the British teen's shoulder.

"Sorry." Harry said instead, diverting his eyes. He was stunned, angry with himself and he had to fight the desire to just make a run for it. Wanting to escape from all the staring eyes.

"Don't worry about it." The taller teen said, hand dropping and moving to collect the ball. "You just forgot about the other player. Next time, try not to move too far away. Let us handle them."

Trowa kicked the ball up the field, jogging back to his position.

While somewhat thankful for the other teen's try at diminishing the damage, it had already been done. The goal itself and the knowledge that he'd inadvertently created that opportunity for the opponents to score weighed on Harry's mind.

The rest of the game went on without much more happening except for the few stray balls that went Harry's way, but the fact that he stopped them all, which would've normally cheered him on, did nothing to deter his thoughts from that single goal in the beginning of the game. It didn't make things better that when the game finally came to a stop without them scoring once; they ended up losing the match with just that one goal.

He hadn't said anything to the others while getting changed, or when stepping back onto the bus on their way home. It was weak of him but he couldn't help but to feel that he'd let them down. He didn't like this feeling that was attaching itself onto him. He didn't want it. He wanted to tell Duo now and then that he would quit the soccer team. But he didn't.

Of all times to show itself, his pride wouldn't let him.

* * *

From out of nowhere a finger came out to poke Harry on the nose and he snatched himself out of his daze from where he'd been sitting, staring at the whiteboard.

"Daydreaming, Harry?" Chris asked him from his hunched position.

Harry blinked at the brunette, before he righted himself up where his arm had slipped off the desk, rubbing his sore chin where it had hit the desk. He looked around him confused when he found the classroom empty save for the two of them.

Heero must've already gone home. Somehow he'd managed to avoid talking to both Heero and Duo all day. Good or bad, he wouldn't know what to say to them.

"Did class end already?"

Chris laughed and slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Dude, are you okay? You sure you're gonna manage club practice like that? You've been in and out of it all day. Had a bad night's sleep or something?"

"No, just got to do some extra push-ups because I was late home yesterday." Harry said, but that wasn't the whole truth.

Chris had hit the nail right on the head. He'd spent the majority of the night worrying about talking to Duo and it wasn't like he could avoid Heero since the boy was in the same class. But the Japanese teen hadn't said anything or even looked at him for whatever reason. Heero didn't seem to care about Harry, only indulging Duo in his idea of using Harry.

Harry collected his books and dumped them, perhaps a little too roughly, in his bag.

"Ouch…I don't get it man. How are you able to do practice at school _and_ home. I'd die of exhaustion if I was you." Chris shook his head empathetically.

"I'm used to it." He said with a shrug and rose up from his seat.

"Still…" Chris said but left it at that.

They started for the door and walked down the hallway. Chris waved to a boy from the club, telling they'd meet him there, before turning back to Harry with a growing smile.

"Anyway, what I was going to tell you was that I and Patrick Schwartz are doing the second doubles for the upcoming game! Can you believe it? I'm on the regulars for the Kilroy game!" Chris seemed to be almost bouncing in his excitement.

Harry blinked once before shoving down his own thoughts. He hadn't spoken to any of the guys about the last weekend's soccer game. I mean, they weren't even aware that he was helping the soccer club out and he'd rather it stayed that way.

"Congratulations Chris." He said and smiled, hoping the boy wouldn't notice the strain in it, but the other seemed oblivious to it as he continued on.

"I can't wait! I hope I do okay though…"

"You'll do fine." Harry reassured him.

"Says the genius boy who's been playing since he was six."The brunette said teasingly, stepping over and punching Harry lightly on the arm. The British teen held back the annoyed frown that was threatening to show. Being a 'genius boy' hadn't helped him any yesterday.

"Harry!"

The boy tensed at the call of his name, fearing for a moment it was Duo calling for him, before both boys switched their eyes to see none other than Cho come jogging down the hallway towards them before the girl came to a stop in front of them.

"Hi Harry." Cho said and smiled, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear shyly.

Chris looked from the one to the other, sending Harry a small grin despite his apparent surprise. Harry ignored the boy.

"Hi."

"I was thinking we could do something this Saturday?" The girl asked and looked at him expectantly.

"Sorry, I can't. We have a tennis game on that day." He said apologetically after getting of his initial surprise for the invite.

"Oh…" Her smile diminished almost immediately.

"Maybe some other time?" He asked instead, not really knowing why.

Her smile came back full force.

"Yes, that would be great. I'll see you tomorrow again then." She clutched her books to her chest as she tripped around them and continued down the hall. She sent him two or three glances over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner.

"Was that Cho Chang?" Chris immediately asked when the girl had gotten out of view and earshot. The slightly taller boy still had his eyes focused on where the girl had disappeared out of sight.

"Yes?" Harry answered with a raised eyebrow.

His eyes swiveled back to Harry.

"How'd you get her to talk to you?" He asked almost amazed.

Harry frowned.

"I didn't do anything particular… we just, well, started talking." He said shrugging.

"But no one gets close to her," Chris persisted. "I mean, her twin brother sees to that."

Harry frowned again.

"Wufei?" He asked and was inadvertently reminded again of more things that he'd not wanted to think about. Like the soccer team the teen belonged to that he'd let down by his poor play and making a fool out of himself.

"Yeah, he's really overprotective of her. At best he just snaps at every boy that tries talking or comes too close to her." Chris said.

Well, that explains last Tuesday, Harry thought, but the boy's attitude towards him was bad even before that, unless he already knew about him befriending Cho but he doubted that. Not that he really cared what the other teen's problem towards him was anyway.

"Why?" He asks still.

"Dunno…" Chris looked thoughtful. "He's always been like that since they started high school. Though no one really knows why."

"Hmm."

"I'm just saying you should look out for yourself so you don't get in any trouble. Word has it that he once even beat one guy up for taking the liberty of feeling her up."

Harry neglected to answer the boy and the brunette soon enough went back to talk about the upcoming match date. He needed to focus on his practice until then. Talking to Duo would have to wait until after that.

He ignored the small voice in the back of his head inside that called him out on being a coward.

* * *

Harry sighed as he got off his bicycle, parking it beside the car. He unlocked the front door and stepped inside.

"I'm home." He called and was on the first step of the stairs before Sirius' head popped out from the kitchen archway.

"Harry, why didn't you tell me you were going to have a friend visiting today?" The man asked.

"A friend?" Harry echoed suddenly, stopping midway.

"Yes, he's waiting upstairs…" Harry left his godfather standing in the archway as he rushed up the stairs. "…in your room." Sirius finished with a raised eyebrow.

Harry stumbled once in his haste to get to the second floor but righted himself up. Stepping quickly towards his room, his hand landing on the door knob he swung it open and in the process almost causing the person holding one of his old photographs to drop it on the floor.

"Duo? What are you doing here?" Harry asked, standing still for a moment before turning around to close the door behind him.

"I didn't see you in school today, even though Heero said you were there." Duo answered him, fingering the photo in his hands. "Figured I'd go to your house instead."

"Oh."

Harry frowned then.

"How did you know where I lived?"

He didn't recall telling the teen his address.

"I had the school reception check the registry for me."

"You can do that?" Harry asked surprised.

Duo ignored his question for the photo in his hands.

"When was this taken?"

He held it up for Harry to see.

Harry's eyes were drawn to it and he remembered it at once. It was from when he'd just won the British Junior Tennis Competition last year. The picture showed Sirius in the moment of lifting Harry, who had the trophy clutched in his one hand while the other was wound around the godfather's neck, up in the air both laughing and smiling.

"Just a competition." Harry said to try and fend off the question.

Duo turned the frame around to look at it again. He hummed noncommittally and deposited it back to its place on the dresser.

Harry moved to the wardrobe, setting down his tennis bag against the wall before going to sit at his desk. While Harry began to take out his books from his messenger bag Duo took a stroll around the room, eyeing the few other photographs he had on display and the different books he had in his shelf. Not that there were many given that although Harry liked to read he didn't actually have that much time for leisure reading.

Since Duo didn't say anything more Harry opted to start up on his homework, leaving the other teen to move around freely. As long as he stayed in the room that is. Harry was feeling the stress building with having Duo visit him like this out of the blue. Had Duo said anything to Sirius about Harry playing soccer with them? No, he couldn't have. Sirius hadn't been angry and appeared to be his usual self before. That was a relief, but that still didn't erase the question as to why Duo was here in the first place. Although he had a good guess… to talk about Harry's performance no doubt.

But why wasn't he saying anything then?

The minutes passed, Harry finished his geography homework and was in the middle of the one in English when Duo's strange, according to the teen's standards anyway, behavior had Harry put down his pen and push his chair around. The action went unnoticed, as far as Harry could see, by the other boy and Harry kept staring at Duo, his eyes almost piercing the other in his impatience to know for sure what the other wanted to say.

"Duo." Harry said after another minute of staring with no result.

The American teen gave a small noise, whether it was to show that he was listening or not, Harry weren't sure of. He frowned at the lack of response.

"Why aren't you saying anything? This isn't like you Duo." Harry let out in a rush.

Duo's head whipped around, his neutral expression gone and replaced by slight apprehension and confusion. This caught Harry off guard enough that the next words died on his tongue.

"Say…Harry." Duo started. "About the game…don't worry about it."

"I'm not really." Harry answered after a while. "I'm not." He said again at the other's raised eyebrow. "Well, not much anyway." He amended at the other boy's stare.

"So…why are you here Duo?" Harry asked again, leaning back in the chair.

Duo made to turn around and face Harry.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"And?"

"And to just check up on you. You looked really down after the game and I just wanted to make sure that you weren't beating yourself up over it." Duo said somewhat cautiously.

"Well, I'm not."

"Good, good." Duo nodded.

"Duo?" Harry said after a while.

"Yeah?"

Harry bit his lip before continuing.

"Don't tell Sirius about this, me playing soccer."

Duo cocked his head, confusion more prominent.

"Why not?"

"Just don't."

The long haired teen sat down on the floor, legs spread out and hands on the sides.

"You keeping it a secret or something?"

"Don't tell him." Harry pressed on, harder.

"I won't, I won't." Duo raised his hands. "Just, why are you keeping it a secret? It's not that big of a deal, is it?" He added a bit unsurely.

Harry sighed, slumping in his seat and eyes closing. He sat like that for a few seconds before opening them again. His eyebrows pressed together as he stared at the bedpost in thought.

"…wouldn't understand…" He mumbled.

"You say something?" Duo asked.

Harry shook himself out of thoughts.

"Let's just leave it at that, alright?"

"Okay, sure." Duo nodded again. Then he asked, "Is it okay if I invite myself to dinner? 'Cause I'm starving!"

Harry blinked once and then chuckled.

"As long as you help clean the dishes."

Duo hummed in agreement, standing up and striding across the floor. When he got to the door he turned around to face Harry again.

"So what's for dinner?"

* * *

"So, Duo was it? Strange name that. It was your father that named you, wasn't it? Now for the big question. Is Harry behaving himself in school? He's not been living up to his father's legacy?" Sirius took a sip out of his glass of beer, the one he gave himself since they were having a 'guest' to dinner that night. Never mind that it was weekday and Monday to boot.

Harry sent the braided teen a meaningful look when the godfather's attention was directed elsewhere. Duo in turn flicked his eyes once in-between the two.

"Oh, yeah, he sure is behaving himself, perfect teacher's pet and all that." Duo said maybe a bit too hastily.

"Oh?" Sirius replied surprised. "I don't remember you being that overly fond of listening to teachers talk for too long." He said, this time to his godson.

Harry nearly slapped his hand against his forehead in frustration. They'd been at this since they sat down for dinner, Sirius asking Duo various questions about school and what not and so far Duo had avoided disclosing any information about Harry's additional club activities. So far that is. Duo was a chatterbox, it seemed like only a matter of time before the boy would let it slip that Harry wasn't being completely truthful towards his godfather. Harry wanted this dinner over and done with before that could happen.

"What can I say? Miss Poe makes an excellent teacher." Harry replied, smile a bit stiff.

"There's a first for everything, isn't it?" Sirius half mumbled.

"Miss Poe is nice, sure, but she's nowhere near as nice as Miss Cunningham." Duo said with a wink.

Sirius ears perked up and Harry inwardly groaned in response, knowing what was coming next, and for sure…

"Really, and this Miss Cunningham, is she a teacher as well?" Sirius asked interestedly.

"The principal's secretary." Duo replied with a crooked smile that was mirrored on the godfather's face.

"Miss Cunningham?" Harry questioned.

"Don't you remember the lady at first day of school?" Duo said. "The one that was checking off the new and old students."

"Oh."

"How old would you suppose she is?"

"Sirius!"

"What? It's just an innocent question." Sirius defended himself.

Harry groaned, this time out loud, and rested his forehead in his hand.

"I'd say she is around thirtie-ish, but looks to be in her late twenties." Duo replied, chin in hand, after a short moment of thinking. "Interested?" He asked slyly.

"Perhaps." Sirius returned nonchalantly.

"I set my eyes on her first." Duo challenged.

"Wait 'til she sets her eyes on me."

"I've got my whole life ahead to offer her."

"Women like men with life experience." Sirius threw back.

"I can trade tips on hair care with her." Duo said and flipped his braid confidently.

Sirius stopped short, only to erupt into ruckus laughter in the next.

"I like you boy. You ought to teach Harry some of that, since I can't seem to get through that thick skull of his. Perhaps his chances of finding a girlfriend is not completely lost."

Harry cheeks colored dimly of red at his godfather's comment and the smirk he wore.

"Sirius!" He shouted, chair scraping as he pushed himself up. "That's none of your bloody business. For your information I can get a girlfriend whenever I want, I just haven't got the time for it."

"Sure, sure." Sirius replied patronizingly. "But let's just have Duo give you a few pointers, just in case. Looking at magazines doesn't count, you know?" He added teasingly.

Harry turned and fled the room, his godfather's laugher ringing in his ears all the while as he took the stairs two steps at a time. He vaguely registered another set of footsteps behind him but didn't care as he stormed into his room and threw himself on his bed, digging his face into the sheets.

"Harry?" Duo's voice was heard after a moment.

Harry's answer was muffled against the fabrics.

The door closed and Harry could feel the bed shift slightly with the other teen's added weight. After another moment of silence Harry decided to give a peek, seeing Duo sitting cross legged on the large queen sized bed beside him.

"Magazines?" The teen asked with a raised eyebrow and a small crooked smile.

Harry growled and burrowed his face in the sheets again.

"Sorry, sorry!" Duo was quick to say and to try and appease the other boy. "He's not that bad, your godfather." He said and waited for Harry to surface again.

The British teen took his time, grumbling lowly all the while. Finally he moved his head so his cheek was resting against the mattress.

Harry eyed Duo for a long time, the braided teen's brows raising in question, before he spoke.

"You're just like him." He said, eyes widening. "How could I have missed that until now when it's so clear that you are the evil spawn coming from him."

Duo frowned, and then leaned forward to tap a finger at Harry's forehead.

"Is that a compliment or an insult?" He asked, mouth twisted with slight annoyance and gave one more tap for good measure.

"I'm just saying. I'm the one that has to deal with the two of you." Harry said with a sigh and groan.

"You dislike me that much?" Duo asked with a pout.

"It's not a question of dislike." Harry argued, pushing himself up and shaking his head. He sat down in front of Duo who was still waiting for an answer. "Try and put yourself in my position." He said. "I've lived my _whole_ life under the constant torture of what is called Sirius Black, and I've done so during most of the day's hours at that too." Harry said seriously.

Duo lowered his elbow to rest on his knee, an eyebrow raised.

"Must've been, _so_, hard on you." He said, nodding, humoring the other boy.

"Don't interrupt." Harry retorted annoyed.

"Sorry."

"Now, I thought I would be freed of that for the few hours I would spend in school, but now I've later discovered that he has a younger clone, or whatever, that also happens to be one of my first friends at the school and that has dragged me into a mess where I have to lie to my godfather and fear his actions if he ever finds out."

"So…all in all," Duo said slowly, free hand waving in the air. "You believe I'm the lost son of your godfather and that it's my fault you're lying about playing soccer to him?" Duo rolled his eyes when Harry hushed him at the last part while flicking his eyes at the closed door.

Duo leaned forward a bit, hands coming to rest on both his knees as he hunched his back to stare at Harry.

"It's your comment about me being one of your first friends that saves you here. You're lucky I give my friends the exclusive right to bash my behavior, and that I consider you my friend. So I'll ignore those other parts since I know you didn't really mean them, right?"

Duo smiled sweetly, coming to rest a hand on one of Harry's shoulders.

The raven haired teen cast the hand one glance, chuckling slowly before smiling apologetically.

"Sorry."

Duo patted his shoulder.

"No problem."

**AN:** Don't know if I like this chapter. I think I need to take lessons in writing action, since my soccer game seriously lacked it. Ugh… R&R please? /Lin


	8. Chapter Seven Frustration And Confusion

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters, or particular things connected to them, from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and godfather are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **Hi! It's been a while (understatement of the year). I've been writing, just not writing on any of my multi-chaptered stories. I got stuck writing one-shots for a while, but I'm back to try and get at least Second Chances finished since I have most of the story and the ending in my head, unlike with IMMOS. I'm not giving up on IMMOS though, definitively not! I just gotta take some time to look at a few plot notes that's making trouble for me. :sighs: Now I'm just gonna get this chapter up and running before going to bed.

Chapter 7

* * *

"Sometimes I'm confused by what I think is really obvious. But what I think is really obvious obviously isn't obvious..."

- Michael Stipe

* * *

Harry tilted his head a bit ways when Duo didn't remove his hand from Harry's shoulder right away. In the background downstairs came the clinking sounds of dishes as a certain godfather complained, loudly, about bad-mannered teenagers skipping out of washing dishes. As Harry was about to ask the other teen what was wrong, the boy spoke up.

"Are you rich Harry?" His voice came out completely natural, as if he was asking what socks the raven haired boy was wearing or something like that.

The British teen appeared stunned at the question at first. He hadn't been expecting it; or rather it was a question that he had wished to avoid.

"I wouldn't say-" He started saying but was quickly interrupted.

"Harry, I may not be exactly rich myself," The long haired boy put his hands on his chest in a gesture. "but I've known Heero for a long time and know that his parents are doing more than well for themselves. Their house is, modest, but anyone can see they've got money. That's nothing compared to this house though." He paused shortly. "You've even got a poolhouse!"

"So my parent's got a little more money than most…"

"I'd say a lot, but hey…"

Harry glared.

"I didn't want anyone finding out I was, you know, _rich_." He grumbled. "They'd think I'm spoiled."

Duo lowered his hands onto his lap.

"I don't think you're spoiled. Didn't you know that Quatre's one of those rich people as well? His father is quite well-known." He said meaningfully.

"Quatre?" Harry replied surprised.

"Yup, fed with a silver spoon, literally, since he was a baby but that doesn't make him spoiled or anything." Duo leaned forward. "He's a great friend that really cares about others."

Harry hummed and nodded, feeling slightly better with the newfound knowledge that one of his main concerns had been toned down. He'd been afraid that he would be judged on the sole basis of having a lot of money in his bank account, and knowing that Duo didn't have a problem with that eased those worries. He was surprised to hear about Quatre though; he hadn't even guessed that the blonde teen was privileged since he did not act like someone who was. The thought made him feel guilty at once though, catching himself inadvertently judging rich people against one label when he himself was far from it.

"Any more secrets I should know that you're worried about?" Duo asked half teasingly, head tilted to the side with a playful grin.

Harry hesitated for a moment, opening his mouth and closing it. Duo raised an eyebrow in response.

"I think Heero hates me." He said finally, with a sullen voice.

"Hates you?" Duo asked dumbfounded and then started laughing.

Harry glared at the teen again for his response.

"What's so funny about that?" He questions annoyed.

"No, no…" Duo breathes in once, twice, before continuing. "It's just that, I've never known or seen anyone that Heero's hated, I mean, ignored sure, but hated? Naw, he wouldn't bother with hating anyone if he can just ignore them or glare at them to scare them away." Duo shook his head. "So no, I don't think he hates you." He shook his head.

The braided teen looked at Harry with a curious eye.

"But why'd you think that? Did he do something to make you think that?"

Harry shuffled lightly.

"There was this photograph… when we were at his house that one time..." Harry trailed off.

"Aah…" Duo said with a long sigh and flopped sideways down onto the bed. "That."

The teen turned onto his back, switching to stare into the ceiling.

"That?" Harry asked when it didn't seem like Duo was going to continue.

Harry couldn't see the other teen's expression, but when he spoke up again he sounded unsure.

"I'm not so sure I should be telling you this." He said. "That's something that happened in Heero's childhood, and even I don't know what exactly happened. Since Heero won't, and don't like to for that too, talk about it, obviously." He shrugged.

"What happened?" Harry tried to ask.

"I can't say for sure, it happened during the same year that I first got to know him." Duo flipped onto his side again, head resting in his palm. "He wasn't this tightlipped back then, you know. The way he is now happened gradually after that…"

Duo paused to take some time to think.

"I think it was something to do with his parents, never found out what exactly, but he started distancing himself from people in school. After that summer, in first year, he came back completely changed, wouldn't talk to me at all at first and buried himself in schoolwork. Took me nearly half a year to get him to hold a longer conversation with me and get him involved with soccer again. I thought getting back into soccer would help him get back on track, you know? Back the way he used to be."

"Mmm…" Harry agreed silently.

"Although he doesn't talk as much as he used to, he's still a lot less 'dark'. There were times when he would actually scare me." Duo shivered unconsciously.

Harry kept silent. So there _was_ an underlying reason to Heero's behavior. The way he'd reacted when Harry had been looking at that picture popped up into his mind. He'd admitted to being scared at that time. The usual distant but docile teen had appeared angry and sad at the same time, confusing him. He'd hoped he'd found out what happened by grasping this chance of asking Duo but it seemed like even the best friend didn't know what really happened to Heero. If he really wanted to know, it seemed that he would have to go to the source, but that would never happen. If Heero's reaction had been like that to only Harry seeing that one picture, then what would it be if Harry asked him outright? He almost didn't dare think about it.

But his curiosity wouldn't settle down, Harry was starting to feel the need to know why and what happened to Heero. It was strange; he thought that if he would find out more about what happened to the teen then his interest would disappear. Only it was the opposite that happened. He wanted to know even more. Like being fed some information only fueled his desire to further his knowledge about the other.

It was frustrating.

Duo eyed Harry from where he was lying on the bed. Harry's eyes were clouded with thoughts and he'd taken to chewing on his lower lip.

"It's better to just forget about it." Duo said to him, drawing Harry's eyes back to him.

Harry nodded in agreement after a while.

He knew that. But that didn't mean that his mind was going to listen to what his brain was telling it to do.

"Yes, I'll do that." He said despite not believing an ounce in his own words.

"Don't you have homework to do Duo?" Harry asked the teen then, to get his thoughts away from the pressing subject.

"Shit!" Duo let out, jumping of the bed, "I completely forgot we have an assignment due tomorrow. I'm so screwed!" He whined piteously.

He grabbed a bag from the other side of the bed that Harry had missed seeing and slung the backpack onto his back. Harry followed the errant and rushed teen down the stairs where Sirius had not long ago finished with the dishes.

"I'll see you in school tomorrow, hopefully," He added with overplayed dread. "Don't avoid me this time, okay?" He said with a finger pointed in the raven haired teen's direction.

"Okay."

Duo nodded, and then swore again when he spotted the time on the clock hanging in the hall.

"Bye!" He called as he went out, the door closing behind him and leaving Harry standing alone in the entrance.

In the corner of his eye he saw Sirius gesturing to him, grinning holding a racket, through the glass doors in the living room facing the garden.

Harry sighed, eyeing the closed door once before giving a small affirmative wave back to the godfather and going back upstairs to change.

That night Harry laid in his bed, unable to sleep much the same like last night but not for the same reason. He was told to forget about what Duo said to him but, yes, easier said than done.

* * *

He turned on his side, squinting his eyes in the dark to see what the time was. The numbers on the digital clock shone brightly in red back at him, telling him it was a little bit after midnight. Meaning he'd been laying there for over an hour, soon two, without being able to fall asleep. He hoped he wasn't setting a new trend of insomnia. That would really get him in trouble if he were to continue to fail to get any sleep and then being unable to keep up with his hectic schedule. Somewhere down the line his body would say stop, and that could not happen. He couldn't remember a time when he used to have this many things going around in his mind.

Harry shut his eyes close and forced himself to push the thoughts away for the time being. Half an hour later he was finally asleep.

* * *

The alarm clock woke him up early the next morning. It took him a moment to register it before reaching a sleepy hand over to turn it off. It was hard getting out of bed, harder than the day before and the sand in his eyes took longer to get rid off but he managed it after having doused his face with cold water.

Breakfast was already put out on the table when he got down and he sat down to munch down whatever Sirius handed him. His godfather sent him a curious look but didn't comment any further besides wishing him a good day in school and saying to invite Duo over again sometime soon.

He'd obviously taken a liking to the rambunctious teen. In many senses those two were a lot alike he was reminded with both a slight bit of worry and curiosity.

In school the lessons went on without much happening, other than Harry immediately being reminded by what he'd been told by Duo yesterday when he saw Heero again in class.

Heero was his usual self, there didn't seem to be anything bothering him, and Harry felt himself become slightly annoyed with him for simply just that. Here he was worrying about Heero and the Japanese teen just sat there with no apparent worries at all to speak of. It made him feel silly.

Sure, it wasn't really Heero's fault Harry's mind had become so preoccupied with the other. He only had his own blasted curiousness to blame for that. Despite that he managed to pay attention to the teachers long enough not to miss any important details. He spent lunch with Duo, and inadvertently Heero, as well as Wufei who had taken to switching between ignoring and glaring at him. Maybe it was good that he was so busy with secretly observing Heero that he didn't have time to be annoyed with the Chinese?

The next day went by pretty much the same, more Heero observing and trying to get his mind off the whole matter that has to do with the Japanese teen. He ignored a, this time, glaring Wufei and talked to Quatre about the newest school assignments. Tennis practice had been picking up pace for the impending game and the guys in the club where giving him calls and words of encouragement in the hallways when he passed them. They seemed to have high expectations of his upcoming performance, unconsciously putting more pressure on him.

Wednesday's club practice proved to be a challenge, even counting Sirius' strict regime. Coach Zechs proved once more his worth and had them all sweating bullets by the end of practice, tired but excited. The other regulars for the rest of the game had been picked out earlier that week and had been playing practice matches against each other. Both doubles pairing up with each other, the second and third singles match together and Harry granted practice with the coach himself. It might seem like the coach had fallen victim for favoritism, it might even had been so to a small degree, but fortunately no one expressed any loud or noticeable complaints. It was all for victory, after all.

The next day he spent lunch with Chris and some other seniors from the club. He'd thought changing his lunch dates would help him keep his mind off Heero and focus more on the game, but it only worked half way. As soon as he'd run out of things to say at the table he went back to his own thinking which lead, whether he wanted them to or not, back to Heero and his eyes discreetly searched the cafeteria for that chocolate colored mop of messy hair. Coming up short he went back to munching quietly on his sandwich. Walking back to English class though, he accidently bumped against said teen, but it was no more than that. He straight away excused himself and Heero went to sit in the furthest parts of the back of the classroom while Chris pulled Harry with him to sit somewhere in the middle.

He could've sworn that, by the feeling in the back of his head, Heero must have been looking at him at least once or twice during the lesson. But it could've just been his imagination as well.

* * *

Harry closed his locker with a sigh. The raven haired teen made his way to the cafeteria where he bought lunch and sat himself by a table that wasn't occupied by any other students. He'd managed to slip past Chris and any other club members. Not that there was anything wrong with them, he just wanted some alone time before the game and not because of that _other_ thing, he kept telling himself. Something he always did the day before a match and he thought it might bring bad luck if he were to change his habits. He told himself it wasn't him feeling overwhelmed and avoiding the guys many questions as of late concerning his tennis.

He must have been deep in thoughts; since he nearly jumped when a red tray clattered onto the table and Duo sat down next to him. Turning his head he saw Quatre sitting down next to the other boy, greeting Harry with a smile.

"Do you mind if we join you? There are not many seats left."

He was actually almost about to say yes, before thinking it rude and taking a look around the cafeteria saw that Quatre was right. Most seats were taken and he couldn't expect to get a whole table for himself. This wasn't the dining room back home in England after all.

"O-of course not." He replied back.

"Thank you." Quatre pulled his tray closer to himself. "Where are the ones you sat with yesterday?" He asked curiously.

"I, usually spend some time alone the day before a game." Harry said.

"Oh! I'm sorry if we're disturbing you. If you want we could try and find another place to sit." Quatre apologized by saying and hands grasping the sides of the tray.

"No, don't." Harry hurried to say, reaching out a hand to halt the blonde. "I, I didn't mean it like that."

"If you're sure." Quatre said with another smile.

"You're playing this weekend?" Duo asked him before taking a bite out of his burger. Was burgers and pizza all that the teen ate for lunch?

Harry took a sip out of his drink.

"This Saturday."

"Home or away?"

"Home."

Quatre jumped at the opportunity.

"What time? We'll come watch. If it's alright with you?" He added.

Harry seemed surprised at the request. He hadn't even thought of inviting anyone to watch, not having any actual friends to invite before to any of his games. Anyone except for his godfather, who came either way, and sometimes his parents, that is if they didn't have any urgent business to attend to.

"You want to?" He asked.

"Why wouldn't we?" Duo asked confused.

"Ah, no, sure, you can come if you want to." Harry said, shaking his head lightly, a small smile playing on his lips. "First game starts at one." He added as an afterthought remembering Quatre's question.

"So, what do I gotta do to get you to help me with my physics homework Quatre?" Duo turned around to ask the blonde, having decided that the other matter was settled. "Name any price, except my lunch money, I need my nutrients, I would offer you help on our math homework, but you don't need it, wait, I could get Heero to help you."

The blonde teen took one look at the other boy, who suddenly squirmed in his seat, before simply going back to his pasta.

"Do it yourself."

Duo seemed flabbergasted.

"You don't mean that!"

"You need to learn some responsibility Duo and stop expecting me, or Heero for that matter," Quatre added when Duo made to say something. "to do it for you."

"Duo." Quatre said sternly when the teen had turned his eyes onto Harry.

"I'm just asking for some help." The teen near whined but it did nothing to faze the friend.

When it was apparent to Duo that he wouldn't be getting what he wanted, he sat back in his chair with a pouty 'humph' and took a large bite out of his burger.

"Give him an hour or two and he'll be back to normal." Quatre said hushed and gave Harry a small wink.

Duo snorted loudly into his drink.

* * *

Harry shuffled around his room, taking out wrist sweatbands, shorts and a shirt which he all put down in his bag where his rackets already lay. He took a swing by the bathroom and pulled out a towel from the cupboard beneath the faucet and shampoo and body soap from the counter top. Down in the kitchen he threw in an empty water bottle in the mix before dumping the bag in hallway and going to sit at the table where Sirius had served up their breakfast. A news channel was put on low volume on the TV that. The sounds accompanied the teen and his godfather as they ate, the man commenting here and there when something of interest to him came on. Harry opted for silence, calming the nervousness he always had when he was going to play a game. He smiled at a joke the older male pulled about the news anchor man's hair before munching down the last piece of his scrambled eggs. He accepted the other dishes as Sirius cleaned the table and then went to sit in the sofa in front of the TV as he waited for Harry to finish up.

Instead of taking the bike to school, like he usually did, they took the car for a change. More for the reason that Sirius complained that real men didn't walk and there was only the one bike Harry used. Harry rolled his eyes at that but went along with the godfather's whims, no matter the ride took less than five minutes getting to their destination, seemingly spending more time finding a free parking space in the lot than getting there in the first place. But Harry wisely kept his mouth shut about that. He didn't need his godfather taking revenge on him by making him do sit- and pull-ups as a way to 'wind-down' from the game.

Having first waved his godfather off, he then went to meet up with the rest of the club and regulars outside the club's changing rooms, receiving the information that their opponent hadn't arrived yet. They changed into the shorts and shirts with the school emblem on the front in the corner. Their uniform was in many ways similar to the soccer club's uniforms, except their shorts were white, while the other club's were black. Other than theirs not having any numbers as well on the back, theirs were pretty much the same in style and design as far as color and pattern went.

Harry exited the changing room in time to see the opposing school's team, Kilroy High School, walk past, some of them casting him curious and calculating looks upon seeing his uniform. He returned the look, letting the group pass before going to take a look at the court's condition. The orange sand and gravel lay flat and nice with no irregular small holes or bumps. He took in the hired referee who was in the middle of conversing with coach Zechs before going to inspect the bleachers, remembering that Quatre and Duo had said that they were coming to watch.

He spotted the two in the front middle, close to the thin line of stairs separating the two sides of seats. A smile found its way onto his face as the two noticed him and Duo stood up, waving a hand in the air as he called down to him and in the same had most of the people their staring at him.

"You came." Harry said as soon as he had come up the stairs to their seats.

"Of course we did. We said we would didn't we?" Quatre said with a small smile.

"Your uniform looks almost like ours, except for the shorts." Duo commented with a curious look at Harry.

"I suppose there isn't that many differences since it's the same school." Harry said.

Quatre nodded, as Duo hummed and cast a look down on the court.

"So when's your game start?"

"Depends." Harry answered.

"Tennis matches doesn't have a set time limit unlike soccer, Duo." Quatre said.

"Right." Duo replied. "So how long do you think it'll take?"

"For a one set match?" Harry said, thinking about it for a short moment. "I'd say somewhere between half an hour to an hour, depending on how even the players are. I play last, of five matches, so it could take a while."

"Oh man!" Duo exclaimed. "That long?"

"Sorry, I should've told you to come later."

"No, no, these matches are as equally important, right Duo." Quatre said diplomatically, earning a look from the long haired teen which the blond stared down. "So, how many matches to you need to win?"

"At least three out of five."

"You said you play last?" Duo asked then.

"Yes."

"Any reason why?"

"Oh." Harry let out, remembering he hadn't thought of mentioning the system of how the games were played to them. He'd just assumed they knew."We play two doubles first, you know doubles right?" He asked just to be sure and continued when he received nods. "Then three singles matches. It's common practice to rank these matches according to the skill of the players. So they're usually called second doubles, first doubles, third singles and so forth."

"And you play last?" Duo asked again.

"Yes." Harry frowned slightly. Hadn't he just asked him that just a moment ago?

"You must be really good then." Duo replied with interest, mouth smirking.

"I guess." Harry said awkwardly, not one to brag about being skilled, except towards his godfather but that was completely different.

"Don't play modest! Admit it you think you're way better than the ones you're playing today." Duo teased.

"I don't," He stuttered but was cut off by the other boy's laughs.

"I think being modest is a good quality, unlike someone else there." Quatre said before giving the snickering teen a look which went unnoticed by the recipient.

In the background Harry heard Zechs calling for him.

"I got to go." He said and started down the stairs.

"Good luck!" Quatre called after him.

Harry joined the gathered group by the fences just outside the court, listening to Zechs last minute speech and going through the match order once more. As the referee took his seat, Zechs took Chris and Patrick with him onto the court to meet their opponent before the first game. The other regulars along with the rest of the members of the club crowded against the fence to prepare to cheer their team mates on. The audience in the bleachers quieted down as the four players took up positions, having decided that the opposing school would start to serve.

The first match was tough, they were evenly matched and the game went on for fifty minutes. It ended with a loss on their side, Chris and Patrick losing the match with two games. The brunette came out through the fence gate, looking much disappointed with his first game as a regular ending like it did. The other members offered the pair taps on the shoulders and back as the next doubles pair entered the court with calls of encouragement.

Harry eyed the other boy from his position on the other side of the group. He could understand what the other boy must be feeling but it was something he had to get through himself if he ever was going to grow better. He turned back to watch the players greet each other, before his eyes strayed to the bleachers to see if Duo had grown restless yet. Maybe he should go over and sit with them for a bit? There were no rules that said that they couldn't sit amongst the audience while waiting to play.

Emerald eyes widened when they found a familiar Japanese teen sitting beside a newly arrived Trowa who sat by the Quatre. Okay, now he was thoroughly confused. Why was Heero here? Duo or Quatre must have called the two. While he was surprised to see Trowa, it didn't actually bother him, the guy was a nice person from what he'd seen but Heero? Even if they called him he didn't think Heero would come, they weren't friends, rarely spoke and hadn't spoken to each these last few days as a matter of fact because of that incident. Heero didn't have a reason to come, I mean, why would he even come in the first place?

Caught in his confusion, Harry missed the first game of the match, as he did his best to hide himself from view of the bleachers behind the other members of the club. Why was the Asian teen constantly confusing him like this, and why was he letting himself be confused by him? He has to let everything that has to do with Heero go, at least for now, so he would be able to concentrate. He couldn't afford to be distracted like this before his game.

He went back to observing the game, trying to cheer with the others when they won the second doubles match, as well as the third. Throwing a last glance at the bleachers he went to take a short run to warm up in time for his game. Had this been a season match then they wouldn't play Harry's match, however since this was preseason and more considered a practice game than anything else, he would still have to play. Thus he had to make sure he was ready for when it was his turn to step onto the coart. He told Chris he was going to do his warm ups before jogging past the group and bleachers, heading towards the track and field club's running grounds.

He glimpsed towards the bleachers, hoping Heero had lost interest and left, but just as all those other times he'd checked before, the teen was still there. He had on a blank expression, an expression that always frustrated the British teen to no end as he was unable to figure out what the other was thinking about, or even what mood he was in.

It was somewhat nice to get away from the cheering crowds, although he could still hear them in the distance. The running grounds were completely deserted, which suited him just fine since no one would be there to disturb him while he ran. The sun was warm and heated his dark hair but he had begun to get used to the warmer climate, or at least better used to it than he had been when he first arrived to this place. He dimly took notice of how much larger the bleachers were here than at the tennis courts, as he stopped and sat down to do his stretches. Few minutes into his stretches, he reached with his hands along his legs as far as he could go and stayed there, face down.

The clearing of a throat had his heart skip a beat at the suddenness of the sound and he squeaked uncharacteristically as he jumped, head shooting up, before he could have another shock seeing Heero standing in front of him, quite close, and he tripped backwards onto his back.

For a moment he lay sprawled on his back, hands out and eyes squinting from the sun hitting eyes, while his mind reeled. What just happened? Wait, Heero's here? He hurriedly righted himself up and stood up. The teen was still standing in front of him but he had a frown on his face.

"Heero?" Harry said hesitantly, flicking his eyes to the sides twice. "What are you doing here?"

The other teen's frown only seemed to grow at the question and Harry felt himself grow slightly insecure. What did he want? Why had he followed him here?

"D-did you want something?" He tried asking.

The Japanese teen's frown suddenly eased, almost disappearing. Heero's cobalt blue eyes stared at him before they glanced to the side.

Harry eyed the boy, confusion raging inside, not really knowing what to do next if the boy wouldn't say anything, until Heero finally spoke up.

"There's another soccer game next weekend." Heero stated.

"Yes?" Harry asked, feeling confused, while frowning lightly.

There was that weird feeling again. What was it with this situation?

Heero's eyebrow drew together.

"Duo said," Oh, so it was Duo that had put him up to this, Harry thought and the pieces was slowly coming into place for him. "that you needed more practice." The teen finished.

"I suppose." Harry said awkwardly.

Of course he needed more practice, that was a large understatement if he ever saw one, so was Heero trying to say that he'd help him practice or something?

"Tomorrow, is that okay?" The Asian teen was still looking sideways and it made Harry feel even more awkward than if the teen had been looking straight at him.

"I don't have anything planned for tomorrow…" He said unsurely. "If that's what you're asking?" He asked tentatively for confirmation.

"Ten... Is ten am okay?"

"Sure." He said.

Heero finally turned to look at him, clear eyes pouring into his, and nodded once before he swiveled on his feet and began walking away, leaving a slightly confused and surprised British teen in his wake.

Harry stood there for a while, wondering and frowning to himself as he was yet again thrown into what was called 'the mystery of Heero Yuy'. Getting over the stupor he'd been in, he felt himself grow even more frustrated with the Japanese teen. What was going on here? Why did he have to become so confused by the teen's actions? Couldn't he have just asked him straight out if he was free for practice tomorrow?

He shook his head, grunting and letting out his frustration with a heavy sigh. Why is it that he always seemed to freeze up whenever Heero was talking to him though? He had to get a grip over himself. There's no way he could keep behaving like this just because the other teen was strange, well, not like any other person he'd met before anyway.

Wait, what's the time?

"Bloody hell." He cursed before abandoning his warm ups.

* * *

Disgruntled Harry arrived back at the courts, stubbornly keeping his eyes from going in the direction of the audience. He would just concentrate and play the game. He was being ridiculous letting Heero bother him like this, so what if the teen had sneaked up on him and then asked if he was free to practice tomorrow, Du was going to be there too right? He didn't want a repeat of the earlier situation.

And so what if the other teen was staring at him…

"Potter!" Coach Zechs called and Harry looked up from where he'd been frowning at the ground.

Zechs was looking pointedly at him and it was then that Harry noticed that second singles was over and his opponent was already on the court waiting for him. He instantly roused himself from his thoughts and shoved them back as far as he could.

Grabbing his bag which Chris held out to him, he offered the other boy a small strained smile, before walking onto the court. Coming to stand by the bench, he let his bag down on the ground and quickly pulled out his racket.

"Potter." Zechs said to him, light blue eyes trailing his movements.

"Yes sir?"

"Keep your mind on the game. There's no reason to throw away it away just because it's a practice match. And don't be late the next time." He said sternly.

"Yes sir, sorry sir."

Zechs sighed, but left it at that.

"I trust you're all ready and warmed up?" He asked and continued at the teen's nod. "Good. Then go out there and prove to me why I should keep you on the regular's team."

Harry held his racket under one arm as he put on his wrist bands. His opponent, a dark blonde boy, was in the middle of going through the motions for his serve and Harry took the opportunity to take in as much of the boy's form as he could before actually playing him. Unconsciously, as he stepped onto the court and went to greet his opponent, his eyes searched out the Japanese teen amongst the crowd on the bleachers and found Heero, not sitting with the rest of his friends, but standing at the far end of the bottom corner part from Harry's position.

Their eyes met for a short moment, emerald clashing with cobalt, neither budging before Harry was forced to divert his gaze in favor of his opponent who had started growing impatient at waiting for Harry to notice him.

"Good luck." He said, smirking, sounding almost disdainful. "You're a new face, freshman? This match won't be as easy as all the others, just so you know, do your best newbie."

Harry felt his eyebrow twitch, not meaning to let the boy's comment affect him but his frustration from before was still there beneath the surface. He plastered a small hard smile on his face.

"Good luck to you too."

Then he promptly turned his back on the boy and walked down the court, not caring if his actions would be considered rude, since he'd not been the first one to be.

The first person to serve had already been decided from the lottery done in the first doubles match, and it was Harry's opponent that was going to start off this game. Clearing his mind of things he didn't need in it right at this moment, Harry took a calming breath, focus sharpened and eyes firm.

The first game was won by Harry without any problems; the boy was a decent enough player but he was nowhere near the level where Harry was at. Harry decided to approach this match with a calm demeanor and slowly but surely take the win. A strategy he used when not wanting to rush the game or when he didn't want to make any careless mistakes. Taking the first game and the serving game of the opponent as well made an impact on his opponent. Usually players battled until either one of the two first lost their serving game. Having Harry take it straight off the bat had to have affected the other teen and that would come to show in his play as he struggled to take it back.

He kept the game on his turn on serving, having expected it, and went on to attack the opponent. The match didn't last long after the first three games, Harry went on to win six straight games, ending the game with an overwhelming victory that had the crowd cheering loudly and Harry was sure he could hear Duo's voice somewhere in there.

He shook his hands with his crestfallen opponent, feeling smug inside to be able to wipe away that smirk from before off the other boy's face. The rest of regulars ran up to him, bumping hands on his back and offering one or two words of praise for his endeavor. Zechs was waiting for him by the bench as he managed to break free of the crowd, taking a towel and wiping away any gravel that might have come onto his racket from the court.

"Good work." Zechs said to him, a large warm smile in place.

"Thank you, sir." Harry replied back, grinning.

"Right, go and take a shower."

"I'm not that sweaty. I'll take one when I get home." Harry replied and he really wasn't, it was more from the sun than the exercise of the game that had a few droplets beading on his forehead.

The coach left him with the parting words to prepare for next week's club practice, before calling for attention of the other members and directing them to fetch the cleaning tools for the court.

Harry had just finished putting away his racket and armbands when a voice called out to him.

"Harry!"

Noticing the braided teen come bouncing over to him, hand waving, Harry couldn't help grinning, still on the rush of the win.

"Duo!" He said as the teen came to a halt in front of him.

"You were great! That dude didn't stand a chance!" The American teen exuded and laughed heartily.

The two was soon joined by Quatre and Trowa who both offered the British teen words of congratulation, which he happily accepted. It was nice having friends, other than family, come and congratulate him after a game.

"Congratulations Harry." Quatre said with smile.

"Congratulations." Trowa echoed.

"Thanks."

The three waited for the raven haired teen to get his bag before they followed him back to the school entrance. Harry silently looked around, searching for a certain Asian teen that he hadn't seen since the start of his match.

"Heero was here before." He mentioned discreetly.

"Oh right, yes he was here just a minute ago." The blonde teen to his right said, taking notice of his statement, and looking around. "Trowa did you see where Heero went?"

The Auburn haired teen shook his head in the negative.

"No, he went away before Harry's game, saying he needed to take care of something. I didn't see him after that."

Harry frowned inwardly. He hadn't told them he was going to ask Harry about tomorrow? And Heero had been there when his game started, and in the middle of it as well, he was sure of it. Confused he kept his mouth shut, letting the others talk amongst themselves and offering a reply here and there when the turned to him. His mind was back to the Japanese teen and his behavior of which he didn't know what to make of.

What was going on here?

* * *

**AN: '**What is going on with Heero? What is he planning?' :insert ominous music: …Uh, yeah. :coughs awkwardly:

I wanted Harry to become more confused with Heero with this chapter, but I ended up confusing even myself. . Heero is just too mysterious, hard to grasp, and getting into his head will prove hard for both Harry and me. I'm trying to make Harry more assertive when it comes to Heero but he's gotta get over his hesitancy towards him first. Though his frustration with the Japanese teen is his first step in that direction so hopefully he'll get there. Someday. ^^; Cheers /Lin


	9. Chapter Eight A Try At Confrontation

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters, or particular things connected to them, from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and godfather are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **Hey everyone! Another update within two days, I hope you'll like this chapter and I'm working on moving along Harry's and Heero's friendship. Basically this whole chapter is about them so, enjoy!

Chapter 8

* * *

"I got into direct confrontation with everybody I love."

Lauryn Hill

* * *

It was by the time that Harry had gone to bed and he lay under the sheets that he decided that he should, at least try, ask Heero about what happened in his childhood. He hadn't known the teen for a very long time but he was already tired with having to guess what the teen was thinking about every time, not to mention what all those stares were about. If the teen had a problem with him then he wanted to know if it was because of him seeing that photo. If so he would apologize again and promise not to speak of it again. In return he would want Heero to stop staring at him. It was bloody distracting and frustrating!

Somehow he fell asleep that night at a reasonable time, setting his alarm clock to a little after eight. He'd forewarned his godfather he'd be going out with friends tomorrow and the man had no objections to that, thinking it only good that Harry was starting to hang around kids his age a lot more now.

* * *

The morning after he woke up first, tripping around the house carefully so as not to wake the godfather from his slumber. This way he could easily sneak out the soccer gear without the man knowing any better. He put down his cell phone last, in case Sirius would decide to call and check up on him. Having eaten breakfast and packed a small lunch, Harry went outside and jumped onto his bike.

The school was deserted, as he'd figured it would be on a Sunday with no club activities or matches scheduled for the day. He parked his bike, securing it to a steel frame, and then walked off in the direction of the soccer grounds, feeling his nervousness peak forth. He squashed it down though, hadn't he told himself all of yesterday evening that he had to get a hold of himself and stop acting like that whenever he was in front of or around Heero?

The sky was a bit cloudy today, unlike all the other days so far in Fremont which had all been warm, too warm and bloody hot. Not necessarily in that order though. Thank god for air-conditioning. The clouds offered some respite from the glowing sun's rays of heat and it was nice not having to squint or shield your eyes from the sun when it got to his unused eyes. The sun had brought some positive points though, it wasn't cold so he didn't freeze and he was starting to gain some color to that British pale appearance of his that he'd had when first moving here. Compared to the other teenagers here it wasn't much, barely noticeable, but to him it was like comparing white to black, happy to just not be as pale as he'd always been before.

They'd agreed to meet at ten but Harry had deliberately left a little later so he wouldn't be taken by surprise again by Heero. He still couldn't figure out how the teen had snuck up on him like that yesterday. Talk about having silent feet or what. So as it was he arrived around five minutes later than agreed upon and he grinned inwardly when he saw Heero one the grass field, juggling and dribbling a soccer ball until he noticed the British teen. After which he immediately stopped, hefting the ball in his hands as he watched the teen trek across the field.

Drawing himself higher, refusing to freeze up like yesterday, Harry waved a hand lazily in greeting to which he got a minor crease of the eyebrows before the Japanese teen surprised him slightly by doing the same, albeit awkwardly.

"Hey." He said, deposing his back at his feet.

"Hn."

After the short greetings there was a short moment of silence until Harry gave himself a kick internally, reminding himself of what he'd decided upon yesterday. He took a look around, realizing that they were alone and the thought made his nervousness start slipping through.

"Duo's not here?" He asked.

"No."

"So, it's just you and me?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

Harry schooled his features to be calm but inwards he was feeling the emotions from yesterday peak forth more and more.

"So, practice, right?"

"Hn."

"Same as last time?"

"Hn."

Heero turned around and began walking down to one of the side's goals, not waiting to see if Harry was following him.

Harry sighed inwardly. I'll take that as a yes, I guess? He thought and bending down to take his bag he trailed after the boy.

The practice started of awkward, at first Heero wouldn't say anything except for humming whenever Harry tried to talk to him. It was only when Harry made another repeat of an earlier mistake that it got the tongue working for the other teen.

Harry stood up, the ball clasped in his hands, when he saw Heero coming up towards him. He frowned, wondering what he was doing.

"You're too stiff." Heero said, he was frowning, but it wasn't the same frown as the one that Harry had seen on him yesterday.

The other teen took his own arms and angled them towards his chest.

"When picking up the ball you need to press it firmly and securely to your chest." He said, waiting expectantly with a raised eyebrow for Harry to mimic him.

Shoving back his initial surprise at the sudden talkative teen, Harry did as he was told and adjusted his hold while Heero kept explaining.

"You also need to keep your legs further apart, you're too unstable as you are now."

"Legs further apart…" Harry repeated and placed an extra step's distance to each side. "Yeah, it does feel a bit more stable like this." He said with an appreciative nod.

"Let's try again." Heero said, reaching for the ball which Harry handed him.

It went slightly better the next time, he knew Heero was holding back but it was still nice to see that he was starting to improve after almost an hour of practice. He wanted to do better in the next game than he did in the last one.

Harry found himself starting to enjoy practicing with Heero. As soon as the other teen had started losing some of that strange tension about him and talking to him, albeit not as much as the others did, it was nice to have a semi normal conversation with the other teen. He realized that it wasn't really part of Heero's personality to talk as much as Duo did, although not many _did_ talk as much as the braided teen did, only Sirius possibly being up in the same league to be able to compete. He would have to say, form hat little he had seen of the boy, that Heero wasn't outgoing or the one to seek others out. In some ways he was reminded of himself as a kid, standing on the side while the other kids ran around playing, watching and observing the other kids laugh and play, never really being a part of it. An outsider in a crowd.

But Heero had sought him out; the others hadn't made him ask Harry out to practice today. Maybe Harry had thought wrong about Heero, after all he had just known him for only nearly a month now and not really spoken to him until now. He soon realized that Duo had been right about Heero not hating him; he'd jumped to that conclusion too quickly because of his own insecurities. He wasn't used to socializing with other teens and so he had little to go on when it came to Heero. On the other hand it looked like Heero was not as confident in that area as well.

Harry jumped at the sudden thunder that roared above them, cracking loudly before it all began to pour, the rain coming harder and harder each second.

"Shit!" He let out shielding his face and head from the rain with his hands.

"Come on!" He heard Heero call out to him.

Heero was already in the process of picking up his bag, neglecting to change his soccer shoes for his regular ones. Harry hurried to his own bag, forgoing to remove the gloves and just picked it up and then ran after Heero towards the school entrance. Heero led the way to his bike where he took Harry's bag for him while he removed the key from the side pocket and then fumbled with the lock. As the lock clicked open he reached a hand for his bag but Heero just shook his head.

"I'll take it."

Heero started running again, leaving the raven haired teen with no other choice but to follow him, running and leading his bike along. He didn't know what to feel about the knowledge that he was going back to Heero's house again. Some part of him was really against it while some other part felt slightly happy that he could be with the other boy a little bit longer.

They were thoroughly soaked by the time that their arrived at Heero's house, not to mention their bag and their content. Harry put the bike where he had it the first time and followed Heero up the stairs, taking the bags as Heero fished out his keychain and unlocked the front door. The two stumbled in, relieved to be inside and away from the rain. Their fast breathing echoed loudly in the apparent deserted house and Harry frowned slightly to himself, when he noticed Heero's parents weren't home today either.

The rainwater had started pooling around their drenched figures.

"Sorry, I'm getting water all over your floor." Harry apologized.

"Don't worry about it." Heero said, taking their bags out of the British teen's hands and dumping them somewhere close to the entrance.

He bent down to start removing his shoes, Harry following and struggling a bit with the knot which was a lot harder to unwind when wet. Outside the sound of the pouring rain went on and from the sounds of it looked that it wouldn't let up any time soon. He needed to call Sirius and tell him he would be late in coming home. Finally getting the shoes off, Harry stepped over and hunched over their bags. He wasn't feeling confident about his cell phone's survival in the heavy rain but he had to see if it, against all odds, were still working. There droplets of water on the black display as he pulled out the phone and as he tried pressing some buttons it didn't react, answering his suspicions.

Harry sighed, eyeing the piece with a mild sorrowful look. What a waste, he thought. It had been a perfectly well and working phone until it got beaten by the powers of the weather.

"You had your cell phone in there?" He heard Heero ask behind him.

"Yeah," He said, starting to turn around. "But it got completely drenched in the rain, it probably-" Harry cut himself off.

He stared at Heero's bare chest, the Japanese teen looking down at him with his eyes on the phone, and he did so for the duration of a second or two before he averted his eyes. Something inside his chest constricted strangely in response which left him feeling confused but since he was unable to understand it, he ignored it.

"Probably won't work anymore." He finished, putting the cell phone bag into the again since it was worthless now. "Can I use your phone? I just need to call my godfather and tell him I'm fine and might be late." He asked, all the while keeping his eyes anywhere except on the half naked teen beside him.

"There's one in the living room." Heero said, stepping up the small step of the entrance.

"Thanks."

Harry walked past the other teen, following the direction he was pointed in. He found a telephone on a small coffee table to his left as he stepped into the living room. Lifting the handle from the cradle, he punched in the number to their house and waited as the signals went through. He strayed his eyes over the interior of the room, taking notice of the bareness of it all, remembering it from the last time he was here.

'_Hello?_' His godfather's voice was heard through the earpiece.

"Sirius, it's Harry."

'_Where are you?_' The man sounded slightly worried. '_This isn't the number to your cell that you're calling from._'

"I'm at the house of a, friend." He said, hesitating once there. "I don't know how long I'll be here; all depends on when it stops raining." The teen continued, looking at a small little porcelain figure of an Asian woman in some kind of dress that was standing on a dresser next to the phone. He leaned in for a closer look.

'_I'll come get you with the car. What's the address?_'

"No!" He said before he was able to stop himself. "I mean," He continued quickly, turning to see ig Heero had heard him. "It's okay Sirius, I'll wait for it to stop and if it doesn't I promise to call you again so you can come and pick me up, okay?"

'_Alright. Don't wait too long with that call though._'

"I won't."

He replaced the phone it its cradle, after which he heaved a small sigh. What was that about? He surprised himself with suddenly not wanting to leave. After all, this was the perfect opportunity to learn more about Heero and he couldn't help but feeling that what little steps they'd taken would just disappear if he were to leave right now.

"You're done?"

Harry jumped slightly at the sound of Heero's voice, taking a step away from the table.

"Yeah."

The teen was no longer in his wet shorts, which he had replaced with a pair of grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt.

Harry sneezed then. He still had on his wet clothes which had gone cold against his cooled body.

Heero frowned at him.

"You better take a shower to warm up." He said and turned around again, starting on the flight of stairs leading upstairs.

"I'm fine." Harry began to say but Heero didn't listen to him.

He followed the teen up the stairs.

"Heero, I'm fine."

"You'll get a cold."

"And you won't?"

"I removed my wet clothes." He cast a look over his shoulder. "You're still in yours."

"Does it matter?" Harry asked him as they stopped in front of a door that he recognized from his last visit was the door to the bathroom.

"Yes." Heero said, surprising the raven haired teen by opening the door and shoving him inside.

Harry sighed heavily after the door behind him had been closed and he had to admit defeat this time. He couldn't help the small niggling feeling of happiness though, that Heero seemed to care enough about his well-being.

"You remember where the towels are?" Heero asked him from the other side of the door.

"Yes." He called back, beginning to divest himself of his wet clothing. "Uhm, where should I put my wet clothes?"

"Just put them on the floor for now." He could hear Heero's footsteps disappearing as he said this.

Beginning to feel the slight chill now for real, Harry pulled off his shirt and other clothes. Like he remembered there were dry and soft towels in the cupboard next to the door. For once he actually used much hotter water than he usually did, because of the chill from the rain and wet clothes. It was nice and he didn't realize how much chilled he'd actually become before stepping under the spray of water. He took the liberty of borrowing some body soap, just to clean up a bit while he was in the shower.

It wasn't until he had taken a towel and dried himself that he realized that he didn't have any dry clothes to get dressed in. Harry looked at the pile of wet clothes with a lost expression. He wound the towel around his waist and opened the door slightly ajar. The hallway outside lay deserted.

"Heero?" He called softly and waited, but no response came.

His eyebrows drew together.

Okay, what now? He needed clothes. His was wet. Heero was nowhere to be seen. He still needed clothes.

"Heero?" He tried again.

No answer.

He sighed.

Taking one last look, Harry tripped slowly out into the hallway. He passed the closed doors; it would be rude to look into them, and besides, his objective was to find Heero not snoop around. Right?

He figured the teen had to be downstairs or something, or maybe he was in his room? Where was Heero's room anyway? He'd only seen a limited amount of the house the last time and even if he were just looking for the teen, he couldn't get the feeling of sneaking around to go away.

Where were his parents anyway? Did they work all the time or something? No, that couldn't be right. They were probably just away on a business trip or something of the like, something Harry's own parents did sometimes. Heero's parents were well off after all, the income had to come from somewhere.

Harry stopped on his way when he noticed one door that wasn't completely closed. Throwing a glance in each direction of the hallway, the British teen frowned slightly as he argued with himself whether to sneak a peek or not. Maybe Heero was tired and had decided to take a nap and that would be why he didn't hear when Harry called for him? It was perfectly possible. Or the teen was just downstairs somewhere where he just didn't hear the other boy. That was also possible. Maybe even more probable, but he needed to just make sure of the first option.

The raven haired boy laid his hand on the doorknob, swinging the door open the rest of the way. The room was obviously a bedroom, judging from it having a bed first of all. Peering inside he was a wooden desk against one of the walls and a shelf filled with various books. There were no distinct things that he took notice of at first, but then he spotted a backpack that he'd seen Heero wear at one occasion in school. From that he deduced that this had to be Heero's bedroom and that, no, the teen hadn't in fact decided to take a nap. Surprise there.

He was about to close the door again, when something caught his eye. He stilled, peering closer and, against his better judgment, ventured inside to take a closer look at what had caught his interest. The room itself was pretty plain, like the rest of the house, except for the wallpaper which was sea blue, or something close to that. It was nice to see that there was some color at least in the house. What had drawn his eyes however, was a small wooden doll, somewhat resembling the design of the porcelain figure he'd seen earlier downstairs in the living room. Difference were this doll seemed much older, like it been through a lot than just collecting dust on a shelf, and that it had been lying on the ground was actually what had made him notice it in the first place.

He went over, bending his knees and reached a hand out for it. Gingerly picking it up, he turned it around slowly as he appraised. The colors had dimmed and flaked at some places. He could tell that it was handmade though, despite its weathered appearance. Raising himself up, he carefully placed the doll on the desk, thinking it probably must have fallen down.

"What are you doing?"

"Bloody hell!"

He nearly knocked the doll over in his surprise but the small figure only swayed a little before settling down.

Turning around he saw Heero standing in the door frame, looking at him with a frown on his face, light confusion playing in his eyes.

"Shit, you scared me…" Harry breathed, hunching slightly.

"What were you doing in here?" Heero's voice broke through the air. It sounded strained, like he was trying to hold something back.

The raven haired teen's eyebrows drew together.

"I was looking for you." He said after a while. "I realized I didn't have any dry clothes to dress in…" He added, trailing off awkwardly.

"Ah…I see." Heero said slowly.

The Japanese teen stepped into the room, moving across the floor to the large closet, opening it and withdrew a pair of shorts and a shirt.

"Will these do?" He murmured, putting down the clothes on the bed as he picked out the separate pieces.

"Thank you." Harry said, and then eyed the doll again. "Say Heero, is this doll from Japan?"

It was an innocent enough question, at least Harry thought so, but obviously it triggered something inside the other teen that cause him to whirl around, eyes cold and harsh.

"That's none of your business." The voice than came out was hard. It reminded Harry of than one time with the photo

Heero strode across the floor, picking the doll of the desk and putting it in one of the drawers instead.

"Heero, I just," Harry started, trying to explain himself.

"None. Of your business." The boy repeated.

Harry bit down on his lip.

"Sorry."

An awkward silence permeated the air between the two boys. Harry cast a last look at Heero before slowly going over to the bed and picking up the clothes there. He exited the room without another word.

Back in the bathroom he took his time to get dressed, not really wanting to go and meet Heero straight away. Fully dressed in the borrowed clothes, Harry moved over to the window and looked out, seeing that the rain was pouring as hard as it had been before. Didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon he thought sullenly, guess he had no other choice but to go back out, no matter the awkwardness between the two.

"Great Harry…" He mumbled sarcastically. "You managed to do something wrong again. Whatever you did that is."

God, this was frustrating! What happened back there? Sure it was none of his business, and it was completely up to Heero if he wanted to share or not. But it had starting going sort of good, he'd been able to talk to the teen and then he had to go and succumb to his curiousness. Too damn curious for his own good sometimes.

Unable to hide away in the bathroom any longer, Harry decided to abandon his temporary safe place.

He thought he would be surprised, but somehow he wasn't as much, to see Heero still in the room, the teen's bedroom. Feeling lost as to what to do, he just stood in the opening, looking in on the teen until said boy noticed him.

Heero turned to stare at him, coldness in his eyes was gone but some of the harshness from before was still there.

"I'm sorry." Harry said. "I didn't mean to snoop around."

Heero turned away, seemingly ignoring him.

The raven haired teen frowned at the other boy's actions. Couldn't he at least give him a reply or something?

He started walking over to the boy.

"Heero." He said, hesitating for a second before reaching a hand out to the boy's shoulder.

Heero swiveled around at him at the contact, slapping his hand away.

" Hey!" Harry said then, his frustration with the other teen reaching his limit. "I said I was sorry, you didn't need to do that, did you?" He rubbed the spot where the elbow had connected with his arm.

"Leave." Heero bit out, glaring at the British teen.

"What's with you?" Harry continued. "I don't get you, in one moment you're sort of nice, and then in the next you want nothing to do with me. Make up your bloody mind!"

"I said leave." Heero repeated louder this time.

"Is it just because of Duo that you even bother with me, is that it? You're just playing nice because there's no other than me at moment that's wants to help you guys. Why bother? You think I'm dreadful at it anyway, so why bother, huh? It's not like we're," Harry hesitated slightly. "It' not like we're friends or anything right?"

"Shut up!"

Harry jerked at the shout, while the other teen took a step closer to him.

"You don't know anything about me!" Heero flung at him.

Heero's cobalt blue eyes were piercing into his, the anger showing in them, but Harry was angry as well and he refused to back down now.

"And you don't know anything about me!" He threw back.

"Leave now."

The Japanese teen was close now, they were almost face to face, but Harry stubbornly stood his ground.

"No."

Up close like this Harry absently took notice of their slight difference in height, two inches or so higher was the Japanese teen than him, which made his eyebrow tick with annoyance. They stared at each other, until Heero's eyes flickered to the side and he made to storm out of the room without another word. Not letting the teen get away that easily, Harry made a grab for the boy's arm.

"Let go!" Heero said before he pushed back at Harry, making the teen lose his grip and stumble back.

Unable to keep his balance, Harry fell backwards, crashing into the wooden desk behind him, feeling his left shoulder blade hit the hard edge before he fell to the floor. Pain instantly bloomed up at the spot and he automatically reached with his other hand to the spot.

"Bloody…hell…" He wheezed in between pained breaths, eyes squinted.

The other teen seemed stunned at what just happened at first, until the boy kneeled down in front of Harry, his hands reached half ways out to him.

"Harry?"

Harry looked up at the Japanese teen, the harsh expression from before was gone and replaced by a worried frown.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…" He said, laying a hand as softly as he could over the raven haired teen's one.

Shit that hurt, Harry thought, taking deep breaths, while the pain pumped.

He sighed, the anger had been flushed away with the pain. He felt instantly stupid; he'd brought this upon himself by provoking the other teen. Now he just hoped the hit to his shoulder wasn't as bad as it felt.

"No," He hissed slightly, shaking his head, when the spot thumped again. "My fault, shouldn't have said all that stuff that I didn't mean to begin with. Hell, that hurts." He said, biting together.

"Can you stand?" Heero asked him.

"Don't know."

Heero reached out his other hand to the boy's unhurt shoulder to try and help him stand. The movement made his shoulder hurt further, and the British teen supported himself against the desk as soon as he got his feet. Heero was hovering over him and Harry could feel the other teen's hesitancy over what to do.

"Just give me a few minutes." He said, taking another deep breath.

The pain was slowly going down, a minute later it had diminished considerably and what was left was a low pumping aching sensation. Harry looked up from having his head lowered and watched the other teen.

"You okay?" Heero asked him.

Harry turned his eyes sideways to his shoulder, he let his hand go from it and, carefully, raised his arm. There was no sparking pain, only the dim thumping. He tried a few more times, testing the shoulder and some other different angles, but it seemed like it was only a bruise.

"I think it's fine." He said at length, looking back at the Japanese teen. "Heero." He said, making sure he had the other's attention. "You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to."

Heero frowned.

"Could I borrow your phone again? I need to call my godfather so he can pick me up."

"Are you going to be okay with that shoulder? Maybe you should have it checked at the hospital?"

"It's not that bad." Harry gave the boy a small smile.

"I think you should, just to be sure." Heero persisted.

Harry shook his head.

"It's really not that bad." He said. "Doesn't even hurt anymore."

Heero raised a mild disbelieving eyebrow at that statement which Harry duly ignored.

The pain was mostly gone now, Harry was more or less sure that he just needed to give it some rest and then it would be fine. No need to take a trip to the hospital for a simple bruise that could take care of itself if you just gave it some time. Besides, having to explain to Sirius why he needed to go to the hospital in the first place would just cause a load of trouble, if Sirius spilled it to his parents they would find out and be unnecessarily worried. No need to worry them when it was, like he said before, just a bruise.

Heero didn't pursue the issue, for which Harry was thankful, and he borrowed the phone after that so that Sirius could come and pick him up. The rain had still to let up and he didn't want to get drenched again. The godfather arrived around ten minutes later, offering a few words of greeting to the Japanese teen before the he and Harry left for home.

That evening Harry excused himself to his room after dinner so that he could to his last homework that he had for the next week. Unsurprisingly the rain was still falling heavily and on the new they were talking about a storm that had suddenly come over this part of the country, but which hopefully would pass during the night.

His shoulder had left slightly numb before going to bed but he had no bigger worries about it and believed that it would pass during the night, just like the storm raging outside.

* * *

The weather forecast had been right, the storm had indeed past, leaving only large puddles of water along the streets. The sun was back to shining brightly above in the sky and Harry suspected that most of the water puddles would be gone, evaporated by the end of the school day.

The first class was bit awkward though, remembering his fight with the Japanese teen yesterday as he walked into one of the classes he shared with the other boy. Heero had immediately noticed him, worry hiding in his eyes as he observed and gave the British teen a once over, trying to deduce his condition. It was mildly embarrassing to have the other boy worry about him; Harry was just glad he wasn't making a larger fuss and keeping quiet about it. He'd woken up that morning feeling nothing wrong with his shoulder, only a darkening bruise but that was normal.

He sat down in the seat next to the other teen, offering Heero a small smile in reassurance before direction his attention to Mr. Kushrenada as the teacher started up the lesson. He turned in the homework head done yesterday to the class before lunch, Duo meeting up with him outside the classroom and dragging both him and Heero, who had the same class, to the cafeteria. They were all gathered today, Trowa and Wufei was already waiting for them when they got there, their tray's of food in front of them almost half eaten.

Harry engaged in a conversation between Duo and Quatre, talking about what homework Duo had missed this weekend and which he was pleading for help with this time. He ended up laughing at one point for which the teen had playfully punched him on the shoulder. His slight wince had gone unnoticed by the others, but a pair of cobalt blue eyes narrowed lightly. Harry ignored the teen and acted like his shoulder hadn't hurt. He silently pleaded that Heero wouldn't bring the whole subject up here, in front of all the others and have, at least three of them, worry about him as well.

If there was something he hated amongst many things then it was others worrying too much or pitying him. He didn't like it, hadn't since he was a kid and his mom would hug him close while she cried when he had hurt himself. She'd become overprotective of him ever since the kidnapping, his father as well, and he absolutely didn't want to give them any reason to abort his schooling in a public school. He didn't trust his mother to pull him out of school just so that she could send him to some famous hospital where they would look over his whole body for anything wrong. It had happened once before and who was to say she wouldn't do it again? Though he'd been eleven at the time of that incident.

The rest of the day passed without much happening, until it became time for club activities. He wouldn't admit it, but he had been worried a bit worried how the practice would go and he did experience some numbing ache at the end of it. However since it passed less than ten minutes after he didn't pay it much mind, the same with the practice later with the godfather but it was all forgotten by the time that he got to bed and fell asleep.

* * *

**AN:** Wee~ Look another chapter. This is my way of trying to make up the long months without any updates to you guys. I'm hoping to get another chapter out this weekend. I managed to get this typed up today since I didn't have any work today. Till next time. ^^ /Lin


	10. Chapter Nine Attraction

**Disclaimers: **I do not own any of the characters, or particular things connected to them, from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.

**Summary: **Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?

**Pairings: **Heero/Harry.

**Warnings: SLASH. AU** as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and godfather are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, **OOC** with the altered conditions.

**Author's note: **It's another chapter! Yay. Like in the last chapter there's also a lot with Harry and Heero in this as well. I'm doing my best to move their interaction and relationship along. Now, after posting this, I'm going to give myself a reward for sitting through the third day in a row constantly writing. (BL radio drama here I go! XD) /Lin

Chapter 9

* * *

"Attraction is beyond our will or ideas sometimes."

Juliette Binoche

* * *

Harry's parents called them on Tuesday evening. They wanted to talk to Harry and hear about how things were going at the school and other things for which Harry was happy to tell them about. Of course, he told them the version that was 'parents –and-godfather-friendly' and not the 'I'm-sneaking-around-and-doing-things-behind-your-back' version of it. It wasn't the first time that he'd kept things from his parents, what kid told his parents everything, but it sure was the biggest one yet. It made him feel slightly uneasy, but he told himself that, yet again, that it wouldn't last long, that he would just help his friends for a little more. That there was no reason telling them about it, because it was only going to be for a little while more.

From his mother he got to know that his father's case was coming along nice so far, they were in the midst of doing the research and brunt work of investigation the facts and details of the case before the court proceedings that would begin in January the next year. It didn't take his mother long though to skip from that subject to other more, mundane and smaller things, like if he was doing his homework properly, listening to the teachers and if he was brushing his teeth morning and night. Some questions embarrassing, amongst them the tooth brushing, but he took them like a man.

They were going to come visit him and Sirius some time starting next month when James found some free time away from the investigation, but they would contact them again later on when they were more certain about a specific date.

Harry put down the phone with a small sigh, reaching a hand up and scratching his head. He went and relayed the information to his godfather before going up to his room, to do his homework. There was math today, not much and he soon had it finished. Twiddling the pen with his one hand, Harry rested his chin in the other, staring at the finished homework in the notebook. The numbers stared back at him and he tilted his head to the side, hand digging into his raven hair as he slumped with his upper body onto the desk. He fiddling with the pen stopped as it dropped onto the desk, rolling before settling in the middle section of his math book. He sighed and the arm he wasn't resting his head on lay down on the desk. The sleepiness was creeping over him and it wasn't even nine o'clock yet.

His hair still damp from the shower, Harry reached over to turn off the desk lamp and then went over and crept down into his bed. Head hitting the pillow and eyelids falling shut as the softness of the bed called to his tired body to rest and that is what he did.

* * *

He woke up to Sirius shouting in his ear, making him jerk and nearly fall of the bed at the shock.

"What are you still doing in bed?" Sirius asked him when the British teen had gotten his bearings back together from the sudden awakening.

Harry stared around himself, noticing the sunlight outside.

"It's morning already?"

"And well past seven I might tell you too."

"I must have forgotten to set my alarm." Harry said, crawling and slinging his legs over the side as he grasped the digital clock in his hands.

Sure enough, the alarm hadn't been put on, hence him not waking up at six which is when he usually got out of bed.

The boy groaned as he jumped onto his feet, going straight to his closet and pulling out clothes as he divested himself of the ones he'd been sleeping in and exchanging them for others. His godfather watched him moving around, collecting his school books and shoving them into his backpack. He half rushed down the stairs, the man behind him, and entered the kitchen, grabbing a bowl of cereal and fruit which he ate by the side this time instead of having it with the cereal like he usually would if he had more time.

Sirius watched him as he ate, eyes switching between the boy and the TV he'd just turned on, with a cup of coffee in one hand.

"Is everything going alright in school?" He asked the teen.

Harry looked up from his bowl, eyebrows furrowed at first before he nodded quickly.

"Ah, sure, everything's fine, Why'd you ask?"

"No, I just thought you've seemed a little tired lately? You're not coming down with anything are you? Maybe the drastic change in environment has affected you more than you think?"

The boy looked up at his god father with a semi annoyed expression.

"No, I'm not. It's hot, yeah, but I've gotten fairly used to it by now." He said and finished the last of the milk and banana.

Throwing the peel away in the trash, Harry bent down hand slung the backpack on, giving the man a small wave before walking out.

"I see you after school Sirius." He called before opening and closing the front door.

Well, outside and halfway on his way to school, the teen finally let his expression go, replaced by a light worried frown. Sirius was starting to notice the signs of tiredness he'd begun to experience lately.

Despite waking up later than planned he got to school on time and met up with the others at lunch, feeling much more alert than he'd had in the morning. Heero was still eyeing him every now and then and Harry felt the other boy was being silly. Sure he was tired, for whole other reasons that didn't have anything to do with his shoulder, which was completely fine now by the way. He'd experience no discomfort the whole day before, even during practice, and so he deemed it healed. Only the bruise mark was left but that would disappear soon enough as well within a few days. Probably gone by the end of the weekend.

* * *

Harry stepped out of the classroom on Thursday afternoon, returning his books to his locker, taking out the ones for the next class and closing it. That's when he noticed another person coming up beside him. He looked up, seeing Heero standing there and he didn't hide the sigh that came out. He spared the Japanese teen a short stare before starting down the corridor, the other boy following him.

He could guess what this was about and he spoke up before the other boy had a chance to.

"I'm fine."

"You hit it hard."

Harry whirled around, causing the other teen to just stop before walking into him.

"Here," He said, turning slightly sideways towards the boy. "Feel for yourself."

The teen seemed slightly stunned at first, before he responded and carefully felt and pressed with his hands on Harry's shoulder and the area around it. Doing so he came quite close, making the raven haired teen involuntarily swallow thickly at the closeness and the concentration in the other's cobalt blue eyes.

"It doesn't hurt?" Heero asked him, their eyes meeting.

He swallowed again, and feeling it was enough, Harry pulled away.

"See," He said, his voice a little strained. "It's fine."

The Japanese teen eyed him for a while longer before he seemed to accept the fact, his hands falling to his side but he wasn't moving away. Harry became awkwardly aware that they'd garnered some queer stares from a passerby or two, but it looked like he was the only one of the two of him and Heero who had noticed. He took a step backwards, suddenly wanting some distance between them so that something wouldn't happen. Whatever that was, he didn't know, just that he needed space as he clutched his books closer to himself in front of him.

The first ring of the bell sounded then.

"Bye."

Harry turned around walking away to his next class, and all the while he was wondering if he actually might be coming down with something.

I mean, why else would his face feel this warm?

* * *

Duo came to him on Friday, asking him if they could practice that coming Saturday afternoon in time for the next game on Sunday. Harry agreed. And so he went out after having taken a quick shower after the practice with the godfather and made his way to the school.

Duo was thrilled to see that he was improving; asking him if he had practiced a bit on his own but Harry just shook his head negative to that. He didn't tell the braided teen that he'd had an extra training session with Heero. The other teen didn't make any signs either of telling and Duo chattered on, happily unaware of the fact. They kept at it for little over an hour before taking a water break.

Harry sat down, bending his head back as he took a swig out of the battle, feeling the delicious feel of water against his dry mouth. He passed the bottle over to the American teen who drank greedily, while Harry leaned over to rest his arms on his bent knees. Duo put aside the bottle and then flopped down on his back for a small rest.

The raven haired boy, smiled at the other boy's actions as he made a sound of satisfaction as he stretched out on the green grass. The water bottle was picked by a tanned hand, of which the British teen followed and then stopped in stunned silence.

Heero drank from the bottle, taking large gulps of water to compensate for the loss of fluid. His eyes were closed, his forehead beaded with pearls of sweat of which on dropped down the side of his temple and cheek. Breathing in as he swallowed the last gulp, he opened his eyes again.

The boy on the grass tore his gaze away from the Japanese teen the second those eyes turned down ways, Concentrating his stare at the changing rooms outside the field instead of at the teen standing beside him. Duo yawned loudly and pushed himself up from the ground, grabbing the ball lying on the grass and moving away towards the goal area.

"Back to practice guys!" He called, unaware of the raven haired boy's tinting cheeks which he'd hidden from sigh from them.

Standing up, Harry absently grabbed the gloves and fastened them on his hands while he followed the long haired teen. Behind him Heero stared at his back for a moment before placing down the water bottle and joining the two.

They went to Heero's house this time as well, Duo calling for using the shower first and the other two letting him. The British teen felt himself grow nervous being back at the house, but he'd decided that he wasn't going to let it affect him anymore. He made small talk with the other teen, as they shared a glass of juice under much better circumstances than the last time. Now he was able to enjoy the juice and the other boy's company.

Footsteps came down the staircase and then they heard Duo call at them.

"See you tomorrow guys! Have to watch my siblings tonight so I gotta run."

"See you tomorrow!" Harry replied just before hearing the front door close.

"So Duo's got siblings?" Harry commented interestedly. "Must be nice."

"The shower's free." Heero said to him.

"You can take it first." The raven haired teen said, holding up his half empty glass. "I've still got some juice left."

"Okay."

Heero placed his glass in the sink before going upstairs, leaving the other teen to finish his by himself.

The glass was brought up to his lips, as he sipped slowly and dragging his fingers across the countertop, feeling the smooth texture of the ceramics. He hoped he would do better tomorrow. It would be nice if they won tomorrow's game. It would be nice to see Heero smile. He didn't think he'd ever seen the boy really smile before and he wondered how the teen would look like when he did. Would the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkle like they did when his father smiled perhaps? Or maybe a dimple in the cheek like his mother?

What would make him smile in the first place?

He didn't appear to be the most expressive with his feelings and it was confusing understanding the teen most of the times but Harry think he was starting to get some hang of at least judging when the other was being annoyed or not, if anything. Well, that was something at least right?

Drink finished, Harry rested his elbow on the counter, chin in hand, while he swirled a finger around the rim of the empty glass. There was a wistful look on his face when Heero finally came back down from his shower.

"That was fast." Harry commented, raising from the seat and going over the sink and rinsing the glass. "Thanks for the drink." He said before fetching his bag by the entrance and making his way to the bathroom.

Newly showered and dressed in clean clothes, Harry wandered down the hallway but stopped when he heard the low sound of clicking. The teen was in his bedroom, sitting in the chair by the desk, and Harry stepped over, knocking twice on the door frame to gain the other's attention. Heero looked up at the knock, gesturing with a small tilt of his head for the British teen to step inside.

He plumped down on the bed, his bag ending up by the bedpost at the end, as he cast a glance at the laptop sitting on the desk which Heero was typing away at.

"Homework?" He asked.

Heero's mussed hair shook as he moved his head side to side.

"It's, my hobby." He said.

"Oh, now I remember you mentioning computers during the introductions at the start of school." Harry replied. He moved a bent leg up on top the bed, resting his hands on his calf.

"You remember that?" Heero asked him, sounding lightly surprised, as his typing slowed.

"My memory isn't that bad," Harry joked.

"Ah, no…" Heero mumbled, his typing starting up again.

"Is it fun?"

"What is?"

"What you're working on now, on the computer." Harry clarified.

"You want to know?" Heero asked him, the teen had stopped typing again and turned his chair around.

"Yeah." Harry said, drumming his fingers against the leg. "Never had much time for them myself, I like books, not much time for that either though, but what do you actually do on it?"

"Programming."

"Programming?

"Software development."

"Wicked, so you do it all yourself?"

"Yes."

"Can I take a look?" Harry stood up, walking over to where Heero was sitting.

The Japanese teen swiveled his chair around and pushed it a bit to the side to let the other teen have a better look. Harry looked down at the screen, taking in all the lines filled with different signs of which half he didn't recognize.

"So this is…?" He asked slowly, eyes trailing along the opened window.

"Codes."

Harry hummed in response. He lifted his hand, brushing back the dark bangs that had fallen across his eyes.

"I saw that the last time." Heero said then, making Harry turn his head sideways.

The Japanese teen was looking at his face, or rather the teen's forehead, with a curious eye. Harry righted himself, placing a hand over his forehead.

"You mean this?" He asked.

"Is it a scar?"

"Yeah." The raven haired teen said, turning around and leaning against the edge of the desk. His fingertips tapped lightly against the pale zig-zag scar found there, just beneath the bangs where you usually couldn't see it because it was kept hidden beneath the hair. "Got it when I was five." There was a thoughtful expression on his face.

"How?" Heero asked, having abandoned his computer for now.

Curious cobalt blue eyes stared up from his seat at the British teen as he twiddled with a lock of hair, the scar hidden behind his bangs again.

"That I don't know. I know when, but not how I got it." Harry said, staring at his bag on the floor.

"You don't remember?"

Harry shook his head.

"No, not how I actually got it."

The teen turned his emerald eyes onto Heero.

"I haven't told anyone about this." He said at first, and then went on with. "I'll tell you if you tell me about what happened to you in your childhood."

Heero's face turned into a troubled frown, his eyes growing hard.

"Sorry, that was unfair of me, or maybe not, but whatever." He said and continued before the other teen could interrupt him. "I was kidnapped when I was five. I got the scar then."

He smiled crookedly at the shocked look on Heero's face.

"Didn't expect that did you?" He said with small smile that had a tint of sad remembrance in it. "I've never talked about this to anyone before…" He murmered slowly. "Wonder why I feel fine telling you?" He laughed lightly.

Harry shook his head, pushing off the desk and walking away, a hand brushing through his hair.

"It's weird." He said. "I remember playing outside the house, I'd kicked my football too hard and it rolled out into street. I went to get it, but I couldn't find it, so I looked for it and then, there was this man, a black car…then nothing."

Unconsciously he closed his hand in a fist.

"I can't remember anything in between that and waking up in the middle of London."Harry said with clear frustration in his voice. Arms flinging outwards in a show of his emotions "Alone, scared…" He trailed off, the silence stretching.

Then noticing the non-existence response from the other boy he tried laughing it off.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to throw all this at you. You can just forget about this." He said, the sad tone in his voice gone as turned back around.

"Heero?" The teen asked confused.

The Japanese teen was no longer sitting in his chair. He surprised the raven haired teen by having moved to stand behind him, close enough to touch if he just reached out with his arm. Harry stared at him, his confusion growing as the taller boy reached a hand out and brushed his bangs with his fingers. Emerald eyes narrowed with incomprehension. The look in the boy's eyes had him frozen, there was this dark look in Heero's blue eyes that just froze him to the ground. He became aware of his own breathing, how strained it suddenly felt and how that constricting feeling in his chest suddenly was there again.

"…Heero?" He tried again.

Heero stared at him, his thumb ghosting against the boy's forehead where the scar was. His eyebrows furrowed lightly for a second, before he leaned forward.

Harry stared into cobalt blue eyes, eyes that had become so impossibly close that his own nearly overlapped to try and keep their focus on them. There was something pressing against his mouth, something soft pressing against his lips. He frowned. Then blue eyes moved away and the pressure disappeared.

He blinked several times, comprehension slowly, very slowly, dawning on him.

"Heero," He said, his voice strangely normal sounding. "what did you do?"

When the other kept silent, he unconsciously drew his hand up, fingertips touching his lower lip. Heero's hand was still in his hair and the boy was standing close to him, his expression clouded with something.

"Did you just…?" He didn't say the word. He just realized what the other boy had done, but why in the world had he done it? This wasn't how it worked, right? Had he missed something here? This wasn't what boys did. There was supposed to be a girl in this picture somewhere. He wasn't one and neither was Heero.

"I'm not a girl." He said, still frowning.

"I know." Heero said, not helping the raven haired boy at all in his confusion.

"Then I don't understand…" He said.

"Do you have to understand?" Heero interrupted by asking, earning himself a deeper frown.

"But-" The British teen started saying but Heero moved forward, kissing him again.

The Japanese teen withdrew when Harry remained unresponsive.

"You don't like it?" He asked, insecurity glinting in his eyes.

"I'm confused." He said, shaking his head lightly.

"You didn't like it?" Heero asked him again.

Harry hesitated for a moment.

"I…liked it." He said, sounding confused and shocked with himself.

Harry felt Heero's arm wound around his back, drawing him closer. The hand in his hair tightened, pushing his head closer to the boy's.

"Wait, He-" He managed to say before their lips were pressing against each other again.

This time it was more assertive, firmer and secure. Heero's eyes had closed, his hand resting surely between Harry's shoulder blades, keeping them together while he continuously moved warm lips over the teen's ones.

Something bubbled up inside his chest, the constricting feeling Harry had had before grew and spread inside his body, weighing down on him inside. His hands crawled up Heero's sides, grasping at the boy's t-shirt tightly in-between his hands and fingers. He was new at this; he'd never kissed anyone before. Had never kissed anyone like _this _before.

It was awkward, their movements didn't match up, but they didn't make them stop, driven on by something inside them both that demanded that they continue. Seeking the other out, drawing them out and into themselves.

They broke free for a second, breaths puffing against each other, eyes half lidded. Heero pushed on him, taking Harry by surprise, making the raven haired boy trip on his own leg. He fell backwards, pulling the Japanese teen down with him and back hitting against the bed. He let out a muffled groan when Heero's body landed above his own, squashing him between the boy and the mattress.

Heat spread across his face, he was acutely aware of something half hard pressing against his hip. Shocked and suddenly aware of his own condition when Heero moved above him, the boy's stomach brushing against _that place_ rather intimately making him groan again but for a whole other reason.

Their eyes found each other, Harry felt his cheeks burn with building excitement as Heero's dark blue eyes moved closer and lips descending upon his once more. He grew bold, more responsive and moved his hands along naked arms, clothed shoulders and Heero's bare neck, hands delving into the boy's mussed and still damp hair.

It felt wild, he didn't know what he was doing anymore, and he was just doing what his impulses told him to do. To grasp the other person close to him, tight to him and never let go. Heero's hands roamed over his body, moved down, pushing in under his shirt and making the boy jerk lightly at the determined hands pressing against his abdomen. Searching, moving along the lines of taut and quivering muscles.

His hands fell from Heero's head, hands moving between the boy's arms and against his back. The Japanese teen's shirt was similarly pushed away, the raven haired boy's fingers roving across a firm back. Using the strength in his arms to their bodies together, making them both hiss when their awakening arousals brushed against the other boy's body, the friction sending signals of heat and pleasure through their system.

Heero's mouth left his, traveling over the corner of his mouth, down the boy's chin and latching onto his neck, right beneath his jaw. He sucked on the flesh there, Heero's warm breath hitting the raven haired boy's ear lobe.

"Heero." The British teen groaned, fingers digging into the boy's back.

Heero's hands moved away from Harry's chest, lifting himself slightly before he shocked the boy beneath by wriggling his hand down the teen's shorts and grasping onto Harry's length.

"Ah!" Harry called out at the touch, his voice soon turning into low moans when the other boy started stroking him.

Heero's head bent down beside his own.

"Harry." He said, his raw voice making heat swarm in the British teen's chest and groin.

Harry moved his hands again, searching out the boy's hard length as well and was rewarded with a stuttering groan when his fingers wrapped around it.

"Harry…"

The boy stroked him faster, the other doing the same as their desire grew larger. Raven locks moved when Heero's other hand dug into his scalp, emerald clashing with cobalt, before he dove down and forced his tongue into the boy's mouth.

Harry was surprised at first but it quickly got washed away by the immense pleasure racing through his body. While he was completely inexperienced with kissing in general, something he suspected the other off as well, he just did his best, did what felt good to him. It was a strange sensation when Heero's tongue lapped and moved against his, touching against the sides and stroking against the roof of his mouth.

Their muffled moans echoed in the otherwise silent room, the silent house. Harry felt he was someplace else, someplace surreal and the only thing he knew was the warm presence pressing down on him, kissing him, touching him. He knew only Heero, what the boy was doing to him, what he was doing to him.

"Ngh! Heero…!" He broke away from the boy's mouth. Heero's head fell down beside his head, his breath, his groans driving into his ear.

Harry's movements became hurried, became frantic. The warmth was growing unbearable. He wanted release, wanted completion. The answer he got was the chocolate haired teen accelerating his stroking with renewed vigor. It wasn't long now. He heard Heero's muted cry against his ear, felt the burst of wetness against his hand. The naked pleasure in the boy's voice did it for Harry. He felt it like a dam suddenly bursting, leaving nothing to stop the release of the energy racing through his body.

There was a while before he become aware of his surroundings again. He blinked his eyes, staring into the white roof, his body tingling all over. He was breathing deeply, and he wasn't alone. Heero still lay above him, the boy's weight starting to press down on him uncomfortably.

"Can you move? Heero?" He asked tiredly.

The boy didn't react at first, but then he raised himself up on one of his arms, alleviating the worst of the weight off the other boy.

"Thanks."

Heero stared at him.

Harry stared back.

His gaze was piercing, almost embarrassing even. Harry's cheeks which were still flushed from their earlier activity, managed to grow a shade darker beneath Heero's shameless scrutiny.

Heero's eyes sparked. He leaned down, Harry holding in his breath, and gave the British teen a soft and slow kiss, only lips on lips. It was a simple, and maybe even tender, kiss.

Drawing back, Heero looked down on him. The seconds ticked past, and then the Japanese teen's expression grew slightly uncomfortable, looking like he was unsure of how to proceed.

"What?" Harry said, swallowing once involuntarily.

"I think I like you." He said.

What does he mean by that? Like him? Wait, as in like him in _that_ kind of like?

"Harry?"

Hold on, hold on. What's going on here? Rather, what just happened? Did Heero just say he liked him?

"I'm a guy." Harry said, voicing his thought out loud.

"I know." Heero replied.

"We just…" He trailed off, not knowing how to finish the sentence.

But he needn't worry because Heero did it for him.

"Had sex."

"That was my first time." Harry said without thinking, then, realizing what he just said felt his face heat up like a tomato.

Heero blinked in surprise, staring at him. Then Harry got the shock of his life when the Japanese teen's cheeks tinted, the tip of his ears even coloring slightly.

"Your ears are red." He stated, pointing at Heero's right ear.

The tint on the boy's cheeks darkened as he instantly covered the ear with his free hand.

Harry stared at the slowly reddening face above, finding himself thinking it kind of endearing on the other boy. How sort of cute, despite him being a boy, it was how he blushed like that.

"You know what?" He continued, caught in the moment. "I think I like you too."

That was when the entrance door opened downstairs and a pair of footsteps entered.

Heero immediately leapt off of Harry, the raven haired teen scrambling to his feet as well, after the initial shock, as they heard the footsteps move around downstairs, probably going into the kitchen.

"Don't tell me that's one of your parents?" Harry hissed at him, panicked, as he fumbled with his clothes and it was then that he noticed the stain on his shorts, the quite obvious stain and which Heero sported a quite similar one. "Shite!" He cursed lowly.

Heero on the other hand was busy peeking out of the door, spying down the hallway to see of the parent was going to come up the stairs. He turned around towards Harry, who was having his own little panic attack and arguing heatedly with himself. Ignoring the British teen for now, he went over and grabbed two random shorts from his closet before going back to the door.

"Come on!" He whispered hurriedly, gesturing for the other teen to follow him.

"You can't be serious!" Harry protested. "They'll see us!"

Heero went back, grabbed the raven haired boy's arm and pulled him along.

"Just come on."

"Heero!" The boy hissed lowly, panicky eyes staring down the hallway towards the staircase.

Heero dragged him towards the opposite direction though, quickly and silently walking up to the bathroom and entered it just as there was steps heard coming up the stairs. Pushing the British teen inside, Heero quickly closed the door and locked it. The two waited with bathed breathes as the steps stepped onto the floor, coming slowly closer.

"Turn on the shower." Heero whispered to him then.

Harry frowned at the order at first but did as the boy told him and twisted the knob until there was water rushing out. The streaming of the water lead the footsteps towards the bathroom door where there was a knock.

"Heero? Are you in there?" It was a woman's soft voice that was heard from the other side of the door.

Harry stayed stiff all throughout the next moment, keeping his teeth clamped shut in fear of alerting the woman, Heero's mother, of his presence.

"I was just going to take a shower." Heero said calmly, after having stepped away from the door a bit.

"I see." She said. There was the sound of the keys to a cell phone being pressed. "I just came home to let you know that I won't be coming home until late this evening. I have an important dinner appointment. Make sure you eat properly before going to bed."

"I will." Heero said.

There was a momentary pause, but then Heero's mom's footsteps began moving away and down the stairs again. They waited until the entrance door was heard opening and finally closing.

It was another minute before Harry had the courage to speak without fear of being found out. However as soon as the tension disappeared he couldn't help the bubbling laugh that erupted, shaking his whole figure. Heero ended up staring at him confusedly, wondering what had gotten into the other boy.

"Oh god," Harry breathed when he finally got control over himself again. "I thought I was going to have a heart attack." He straightened. "So, that's was your mother?" He asked.

Heero's eyebrows drew together the smallest.

"Yes."

He stepped over to the still lightly shaking teen. Harry looked up at him, his eyes dancing with amusement and a large smile on his face. Heero's lips quirked in response.

"We got to take another shower." Harry stated.

Heero's quirk grew into a smirk.

"I'll help you."

The raven haired teen's face instantly flushed at the reply.

* * *

**AN: **I wasn't moving too fast was I? If I was then I apologize, but I couldn't hold it off any longer. Argh! Trust me though! It isn't all sunshine and rose petals yet…we still have the issue with Heero's childhood, Harry having secrets from his family (his and Heero's relationship now being added to one of those secrets) and not to forget the final event and climax that I have planned. So there's still a lot to come. So! I'm gonna do my best and crank out yet another chapter this weekend. See, I'm working hard to make up the long wait to you guys. ToT So, a few reviews would be greatly appreciated. I thrive on reviews, they make me happy and giddy inside and motivated to write. Lotsa hugs! /Lin


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